The  HOUSE  of 
FULFILMENT 


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THE  HOUSE  OF  FULFILMENT 


WHAT    IS    VIII   K     NAMK,     I1KAK.1 


THE   HOUSE  OF 
FULFILMENT 

By   GEORGE   MADDEN   MARTIN 

AUTHOR  OF   EMMY  LOU 


NEW  YORK 

McCLURE,  PHILLIPS  &  CO. 
MCMTV 


Copyright,  1904,  by 
McCLURE,   PHILLIPS  &  CO. 

Published,  September,  1904 

8«cond  Imprettloi 


COPVBIOHT.    1904,    BV   TlIK   S.    S.    McCLDRB  Co. 


To  A.  R.  M. 


2137001 


PART  ONE 

"Love  is  enough:  ho  ye  who  seek  saving, 

Go  no  further:  come  hither:  there  liave  been  who  have 

found  it, 

And  these  know  the  House  of  Fulfilment  of  craving; 
These  know  the  Cup  with  the  roses  around  it; 
These  know  the  World's  Wound  and  the  balm  that 

hath  bound  it." 

WILLIAM   MORRIS. 

— "  Elements,  breeds,  adjustments     .      .     . 
A  new  race  dominating  previous  ones" 

WALT   WHITMAN. 


CHAPTER    ONE 

Harriet  Blair  was  seventeen  when  she  went 
with  her  father  and  mother  and  her  brother 
Austen  to  New  Orleans,  to  the  marriage  of 
an  older  brother,  Alexander,  the  father's 
business  representative  at  that  place.  It 
was  characteristic  of  the  Blairs  that  they  de- 
clined the  hospitality  of  the  bride's  family, 
and  from  the  hotel  attended,  punctiliously 
and  formally,  the  occasions  for  which  they 
had  come.  It  takes  ease  to  accept  hospi- 
tality. 

Alexander  Blair,  the  father,  banker  and 
capitalist,  of  Vermont  stock,  now  the  richest 
man  in  Louisville,  was  of  a  stern  rugged- 


4  THE  HOUSE  OF  FULFILMENT 

ness  unsoftened  by  a  long  and  successful 
career  in  the  South,  while  his  wife,  the 
daughter  of  a  Scotch  schoolmaster  settled 
in  Pennsylvania,  was  the  possessor  of  a 
thrifty  closeness  and  strong,  practical  sense. 

Alexander,  their  oldest  son,  a  man  of 
thirty,  to  whose  wedding  they  had  come,  was 
what  was  natural  to  expect,  a  literal,  shrewd 
man,  with  a  strong  sense  of  duty  as  he  saw  it. 
His  long,  clean-shaven  upper  lip,  above  a 
beard,  looked  slightly  grim,  and  his  straight- 
gazing,  blue-grey  eyes  were  stern. 

The  second  son,  Austen,  was  clean- 
featured,  handsome  and  blond,  but  he  was 
also,  by  report,  the  shrewd  and  promising 
son  of  his  father,  even  as  his  brother  was  re- 
ported before  him. 

Harriet,  the  daughter,  was  a  silent,  cold- 
looking  girl,  who  wrapped  herself  in  reserve 
as  a  cover  for  self-consciousness  but,  observ- 


PART  ONE  6 

ing  closely,  thought  to  her  own  conclusions. 
She  had  a  disillusioning  way  of  baring 
facts  in  these  communings,  which  showed 
life  to  her  very  honestly  but  without  ro- 
mance or  glamour. 

At  the  wedding,  sitting  in  her  white  dress 
by  her  father  and  mother  in  the  flower- 
bedecked  parlours  of  the  Randolphs,  Harriet 
looked  at  her  brother,  standing  by  the  girl 
of  seventeen  whom  he  had  just  married,  and 
saw  things  much  as  they  were.  In  Molly, 
the  bride  of  an  hour,  with  her  child's  face 
and  red-brown  hair  and  shadowy  lashes,  she 
saw  a  descendant  of  pleasure-loving,  ease- 
taking  Southerners.  Molly's  father,  from 
what  Austen  had  said,  was  the  dispenser  of 
a  lavish  and  improvident  hospitality  and  a 
genial  dweller  on  the  edge  of  bankruptcy, 
while  the  mother,  a  belle  of  the  '40's,  some 
one  had  told  the  Blairs,  seemed  just  the 


6  THE   HOUSE  OF  FULFILMENT 

woman  to  marry  her  only  child  to  a  man 
opposed  to  her  people  in  creed,  politics  and 
habits  —  which  in  1860  meant  something  — 
but  son  of  one  of  the  richest  men  in  the 
South. 

Harriet  ate  her  supper  close  by  her  father 
and  mother.  She  did  not  know  how  to  mix 
with  these  gay,  incidental  Southerners,  and 
sitting  there,  went  on  with  her  communings. 
She  could  explain  it  on  the  Randolph  side, 
but  why  Alexander  was  marrying  Molly  she 
could  not  understand.  Shy  and  self-con- 
scious, she  knew  vaguely  of  a  thing  called 
love.  She  had  met  it  in  her  reading  rather 
than  seen  its  acting  forces  anywhere  about 
her.  To  be  sure,  her  brother  Austen  had 
been  engaged  to  a  Miss  Ransome  of  Wood- 
ford  County,  a  fashionable  Kentucky  beauty. 
The  Blairs  were  a  narrowly  religious  people. 
Harriet,  a  school-girl  then,  had  stood  at  the 


PART  ONE  7 

window  of  the  stately  new  stone  house  in 
Louisville  which  the  Blairs  called  home,  and, 
watching  the  fashionable  world  flow  in  and 
out  of  the  high  old  brick  cottage  across  the 
street,  where  Miss  Ransome  spent  much 
time  with  a  great-aunt,  had  wondered. 

But  love  had  not  proved  such  a  factor 
after  all.  Austen's  engagement  had  been 
broken. 

Harriet  went  back  to  Kentucky  with  the 
question  of  Alexander  and  Molly  still  open. 

A  year  later  her  father  went  South  again. 
War  was  loudly  threatening,  and  he  had 
large  interests  in  Louisiana  and  Mississippi. 
There  was  a  certain  sympathy  and  under- 
standing between  the  stern,  silent  man  and 
his  daughter,  and  he  suggested  that  she  go 
with  him  and  see  the  child  newly  born  to 
Alexander  and  Molly. 

But,  reaching  New  Orleans  to  find  his  son 


8  THE   HOUSE  OF  FULFILMENT 

gone  to  Mobile,  concerning  these  same  in- 
terests, Mr.  Blair  decided  to  join  him,  and 
Molly  being  about  to  leave  for  her  father's 
plantation  with  the  baby  and  nurse,  that  she 
might  the  more  rapidly  convalesce,  it  was 
decided  that  Harriet  accompany  her. 

The  two  weeks  at  Cannes-Brulee  were 
strange  to  the  girl,  thus  introduced  to  a 
Southern  house  overflowing  with  guests  and 
servants,  and  she  moved  amid  the  idling  and 
irresponsibility,  the  laughter  and  persiflage, 
with  a  sense  of  being  outside  of  it  all,  and  the 
fault,  try  as  she  would,  her  own. 

This  feeling  was  strongest  that  Sunday 
afternoon  when  the  gaiety  and  badinage 
seemed  to  centre  about  a  new  arrival,  a 
handsome,  silver- aureoled  Catholic  priest, 
confessor  to  half  the  parish.  Genial,  pol- 
ished, and  affable,  his  very  charm  seemed  to 
the  Calvinistic-bred  Harriet  to  invest  him 


PART  ONE  9 

the  more  with  the  seductions  of  Romanism, 
as  she  had  been  taught  to  regard  them. 

There  were  music,  cards,  a  huge  bowl 
frosted  with  the  icy  beverage  within,  and  to 
the  stunned  young  Puritan  the  genial  little 
priest  in  the  midst  seemed  smiling  a  bac- 
chanalian benediction  over  all. 

Suddenly,  above  chatter  and  music  Mol- 
ly's voice  arose,  gay  but  insistent,  Molly 
there  in  the  big  chair,  pale  and  big-eyed,  her 
strength  so  slow  to  return,  herself  a  child  in 
her  little  muslin  dress. 

"Baby  is  four  weeks  old,"  Molly  was  de- 
claring, "  and  here  is  Father  Bonot  from  ser- 
vice at  Cannes-Brulee  and  so  with  his  vest- 
ments. I'm  here  and  Harriet's  here,  and 
mamma's  here,  and  everybody  else  is  a 
cousin  or  something.  I'm  sure  I  don't 
know  when  I  can  get  to  church.  P'tite  shall 
be  baptized  here,  now." 


10  THE   HOUSE  OF  FULFILMENT 

And  before  the  slower  comprehension  of 
the  dazed  Harriet  had  grasped  the  meaning 
of  the  ensuing  preparations  —  the  draping 
of  the  pier-table,  the  lighting  of  waxen  can- 
dles —  a  sudden  silence  had  fallen ;  the  gay 
abandon  of  these  mercurial  Southerners  had 
given  place  to  reverent  awe,  even  to  tears,  as 
the  new-born  representative  of  the  Puritan 
Blairs  was  brought  in,  in  robes  like  cascades 
of  lace,  while  of  all  that  followed,  the  one 
thing  seeming  to  reach  the  comprehension  of 
Harriet  was  the  chanting  monotone  of 
Father  Bonot  saying  above  the  child,  "  Mary 
Alexina  — 

Later  Molly  and  Harriet  went  back  to 
New  Orleans,  to  find  Alexander  there  but 
his  father  gone  up  to  Vicksburg.  Molly  was 
to  keep  Harriet  with  her  until  his  return. 

Only  the  girl  knew  what  it  meant  to  find 
herself  near  her  brother.  It  was  as  if  here 


PART  ONE  11 

was  something  sane,  rational,  stable,  by 
which  to  re-establish  poise  and  standards. 
Harriet  would  have  trembled  to  oppose  her 
brother,  so  that  to  see  Molly  and  Alexander 
together  was  a  revelation.  His  sternness 
and  his  displeasure  alike  broke  as  a  wave 
upon  Molly,  and  as  a  wave  receded,  leaving 
her,  as  a  wave  would  leave  the  sand,  pretty 
and  sparkling  and  smiling.  Other  things 
were  revelations  to  Harriet,  too. 

Going  down  to  breakfast  one  morning,  she 
found  her  brother  clean  shaven,  immaculate, 
monosyllabic,  awaiting  the  overdue  meal. 
The  French  windows  were  open  to  the  scent 
of  myriads  of  roses  outside,  and  also  to  the 
morning  sun,  far  too  high.  The  negro  ser- 
vants were  hurrying  to  and  fro,  Molly  no- 
where visible. 

Later,  as  the  dishes  were  being  uncovered, 
she  appeared,  her  unstockinged  little  feet 


12  THE  HOUSE   OF  FULFILMENT 

thrust  into  pretty  French  slippers,  and  her 
cambric  nightgown  by  no  means  concealed 
by  a  negligee,  all  lace  and  ribbons,  hastily 
caught  together.  Yet  she  was  pretty,  pretty 
like  a  lovely  and  naughty  child. 

Nor  did  the  embarrassment  of  Harriet, 
the  presence  of  the  servants,  or  her  husband's 
cold  preoccupation  with  his  breakfast  dis- 
turb Molly,  who  trailed  along  with  apparent 
unconcern  until,  reaching  his  elbow,  she 
threw  a  wicked  glance  at  Harriet,  then  kissed 
him  on  that  spot  on  his  head  which,  but 
for  a  few  carefully  disposed  strands,  must 
have  been  termed  bald. 

At  the  thing,  absurd  as  it  was,  there  swept 
over  Harriet  the  hot  shrinking  of  one  made 
conscious  of  sex  for  the  first  time.  With 
throbbing  at  throat  and  ears,  she  gazed  into 
her  plate,  her  feeling,  oddly  enough,  cen- 
tring in  keen  revulsion  against  her  brother. 


PART   ONE  13 

But  Molly  was  dragging  a  chair  to  his 
elbow.  "What's  the  fricassee  made  of, 
Alexander?" 

Her  husband  vouching  her  no  reply,  she 
slipped  an  arm  about  his  neck,  and,  lean- 
ing over,  drew  his  fork  to  her  mouth  and 
tasted  the  morsel  thereon. 

Then  she  turned  her  head  sideways  to  re- 
gard him.  "Don't  frown  it  back,  Alec,  the 
smile  I  mean.  I  adore  you  when  you  don't 
want  to  and  have  to  let  it  come.  Acknowl- 
edge now,  this  is  the  way  to  breakfast." 

And  Harriet,  who  had  been  led  to  regard 
playfulness  as  little  less  than  vice,  was  con- 
scious of  Molly  trying  to  force  a  ripe  fig  be- 
tween Alexander's  lips,  repressed,  thin  lips 
upon  which  softening  sat  as  if  afraid  of  itself 
and  her. 

'You  see,"  Molly  was  explaining,  "I 
couldn't  get  down  sooner.  P'tite  was  mak- 


14  THE   HOUSE   OF  FULFILMENT 

ing  the  most  absurd  catches  at  her  mosquito 
bar,  and  Celeste  refusing  to  laugh  at  her. 
You  haven't  finished  your  breakfast  ?  Why 
must  you  always  hurry  off  ?  No "  -  her 
hand  against  his  mouth,  he,  risen  now,  she 
on  a  knee  in  her  chair,  clinging  to  him- 
"  don't  tell  me  any  more  about  Sumter  hav- 
ing been  fired  upon,  and  your  being  worried 
over  business.  I  hate  business.  What's 
anything  this  moment,  if  you  would  only  see 
it,  compared  with  me,  and  ripe  figs  dipped 
in  cream?" 

And  then  the  triumph  of  her  laugh  as,  his 
arms  suddenly  around  her,  he  grasped  her, 
lifted,  enfolded  her  for  a  moment,  then  as 
fiercely  put  her  from  him  and  went  out,  leav- 
ing Harriet  sick,  shaken,  at  this  sight  of 
human  passion  seen  for  the  first  time. 

The  following  day  Harriet's  father  re- 
turned and  she  went  home. 


PART  ONE  15 

When  she  next  saw  her  brother  it  was 
in  Louisville,  where  he  was  driven  back  to 
his  own  people  by  reason  of  his  Northern 
creed  and  sympathies.  His  father-in-law 
had  been  among  the  first  to  fall  in  defence 
of  the  Confederacy,  and  with  Alexander, 
now,  was  his  mother-in-law,  widowed  and 
dependent,  and  a  wife  in  this  sense  changed 
from  child  to  woman  —  that  she  was  a 
fiercely  avowed  Southerner  to  the  fibre  of 
her. 

With  his  little  family  he  remained  in 
Louisville  a  year.  If  his  own  people  won- 
dered at  the  extravagance  of  his  wife  and 
mother-in-law  at  a  time  when  incomes  were 
so  seriously  shrunken,  Alexander  was  too 
much  a  Blair  for  even  a  Blair  to  approach 
the  subject. 

The  child  was  sent  daily  to  his  mother's  — 
he  saw  to  that  —  a  pretty  baby,  the  little 


16  THE  HOUSE  OF  FULFILMENT 

Mary  Alexina,  and  robed  like  a  young  prin- 
cess; but  beyond  this  he  seemed  to  discour- 
age intimacy  between  the  households.  Cer- 
tainly there  was  no  common  ground,  the 
business  judgment,  large  experience,  and  the 
integrity  of  the  Blairs  being  in  the  constant 
service  of  the  government,  while  rumor  had 
it  that  the  home  of  young  Mrs.  Alexander 
Blair  was  the  social  rallying  place  for  South- 
ern sympathizers  generally. 

Suddenly,  in  the  midst  of  big  affairs,  Alex- 
ander arranged  otherwise  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  his  wife's  mother,  whom  it  was  his 
to  support  for  the  few  remaining  years  of  her 
life,  and  went  to  Europe  with  Molly  and  the 
child.  Long  after  it  came  to  Harriet's  hear- 
ing that  the  frequent  presence  of  a  young 
Confederate  officer  at  his  house  had  led  to 
the  step. 

It  was  four  years  from  this  time,  in  1867, 


PART  ONE  17 

that  Alexander  Blair,  the  senior,  died,  to  be 
shortly  followed  by  his  wife. 

Though  the  son  Alexander  returned  to 
Louisville  of  necessity,  following  these 
events,  he  left  Molly  and  the  child  in  Wash- 
ington with  some  of  her  people  there.  And 
though  his  interests  became  centred  in 
Louisville  again,  he  never  brought  his  family 
back,  but  went  and  came  between  the  two 
places.  In  domestic  infelicity  it  is  our  own 
people  we  would  hide  it  from  longest.  It 
was  two  years  after,  in  '69,  that  Alexander 
met  his  end  with  the  shocking  suddenness 
of  accidental  death  as  he  was  returning  East 
to  Molly  and  the  child. 


CHAPTER   TWO 

The  leisure  of  a  summer  evening  had  fallen 
with  the  twilight.  Along  that  street  in  Louis- 
ville wherein  stood  the  Blair  house,  with  its 
splendid  lawn,  and  its  carriage  driveway 
issuing  through  a  tall,  iron  gate,  front  doors 
were  opening  and  family  groups  gathering. 
The  yards  wore  the  fresh  green  of  June.  A 
homecoming  crumple-horn  ambled  by,  her 
bag  swinging  heavily.  In  the  South,  in 
1870,  cities  were  villages  overgrown. 

In  the  parlour  of  her  home  Harriet  Blair 
sat,  awaiting  the  arrival  of  her  brother  Aus- 
ten from  Washington,  where  he  had  gone  to 
bring  back  their  dead  brother's  child. 


PART  ONE  19 

Harriet,  at  twenty-six,  in  lustreless  mourn- 
ing, was  handsome  and,  some  might  have 
said,  cold.  Her  face  was  finely  chiselled,  and 
framed  with  light  hair  waving  from  its  part- 
ing in  curves  regular  as  the  flutings  of  a 
shell.  There  was  a  poise,  a  composure 
about  this  Harriet,  making  her  unlike  the 
tall,  shy  girl  of  nine  years  before. 

As  the  bell  rang  she  laid  down  her  book 
and  rose,  and  a  second  later  Austen  entered, 
leading  a  little  girl  with  a  round,  short- 
cropped  head.  His  eyes  met  his  sister's  in 
greeting,  then  he  loosed  the  child's  hand. 
"This  is  your  Aunt  Harriet,  Alexina,"  he 
said,  and  stepped  across  the  room  to  stand 
before  the  mantel  and  watch  the  two. 

Harriet  bent  and  kissed  the  small  cheek. 
Demonstration,  even  to  this  extent,  meant 
much  for  a  Blair.  Then  she  crossed  the 
room.  She  was  more  than  ordinarily  tall 


20  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

for  a  woman,  with  form  proportioned  to 
length  of  limb,  and  the  beauty  of  her  car- 
riage gained  by  her  unconsciousness  of  it. 

Having  pulled  the  bell-cord  she  came 
back,  smiling,  calmly  expectant,  looking 
from  Austen  to  the  child,  who,  seated  now  on 
the  edge  of  a  chair,  was  regarding  her  with 
grave  eyes. 

"She  has  a  strong  look  of  Alexander," 
said  Harriet,  consideringly,  **  and  a  little 
look  of  you  —  and  of  me.  She  is  a  Blair, 
though  I  can  see  her  mother,  too,  about  the 
mouth." 

The  child  moved  under  the  scrutiny,  but 
her  gaze,  returning  the  study,  did  not  falter. 

Harriet  laughed;  was  it  at  this  impertur- 
bability ?  "  I  think,"  she  decided,  "  we  may 
consider  her  a  Blair."  Then  to  the  white 
maid-servant  entering:  "You  may  order 
supper,  Nelly,  for  Mr.  Blair  and  myself. 


PART   ONE  21 

This  is  Alexina,  and,  I  should  say,  tired  out. 
Suppose  you  give  her  a  warm  bath  and  let 
her  go  right  to  bed  —  have  you  her  trunk 
key,  Austen  ?  —  and  I  will  send  a  tray  up 
with  her  supper  afterward." 

Then,  as  Nelly  took  the  key  and  went  out, 
Harriet  addressed  her  brother.  "  For,  apart 
from  the  hygienic  advantages  of  the  bath 
before  the  supper,  I  confess  "  —  with  faintly 
discernible  amusement  —  "  to  a  fancy  for  the 
ceremony  as  a  form,  so  to  speak,  emblematic 
of  a  moral  washing  and  a  fresh  start."  She 
ended  with  a  raising  of  her  brows  as  she  re- 
garded her  brother. 

Austen  Blair  had  no  use  for  levity.  Mild 
as  this  was,  he  dismissed  it  curtly.  "I 
would  suggest,"  he  said,  "that  you  avoid 
personalities;  it  can  but  be  injudicious  for 
any  child  to  hear  itself  discussed." 

Again  Harriet  laughed;  she  was  provok- 


22  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

ingly  good-humored.  "Coming  from  her 
nine  years  of  life  beneath  Molly's  expansive 
nature,  I  don't  think  you  need  fear  for  what 
she'll  gather  from  me."  She  took  the  child's 
hand  and  lifted  her  from  the  chair.  "  Here 
is  Nelly,  Alexina;  go  with  her  and  do  what 
she  says.  Say  good-night  to  your  uncle. 
Supper,  Austen." 

The  dining-room  being  sombre,  one  might 
have  said  it  accorded  with  the  master,  whose 
frown  had  not  all  cleared  away. 

Harriet  was  speaking.  "  What  of  Molly  ? 
Was  there  a  scene  at  parting  with  her  volun- 
tarily given-up  offspring?  For  her  moods, 
like  her  tempers,  used  to  delight  in  being 
somewhat  inconsistent  and  mixed." 

"She  has  in  no  way  changed,"  replied 
Austen.  Was  it  this  flat  conciseness  in  all 
he  said  that  made  levity  irresistible  to  Har- 
riet in  turn?  "My  interview  with  her  was 


PART   ONE  23 

confined  to  business.  That  ended,  she  told 
me,  as  an  afterthought,  apparently,  that  the 
coloured  woman  was  going  to  remain  with 
her,  and  she  supposed  Alexina  could  manage 
on  the  train.  She  also  told  me  that  her  hus- 
band had  severed  connection  with  the  lega- 
tion and  was  going  back  to  Paris.  Alexina 
was  not  with  them  at  the  hotel,  but  with  her 
uncle,  Senator  Randolph,  from  whose  house 
Molly  was  married." 

"  And  Molly's  parting  with  the  child  - 

"Was  a  piece  with  it  all,  tears  and  relief, 
just  as  you  would  have  expected." 

"And  the  husband's,  this  Mr.  Garnier's, 
attitude?" 

"Was  enigmatical;  how  far  he  under- 
stands the  situation  I  had  no  means  of 
judging." 

"I'm  sorry  for  the  child,  though,"  said 
Harriet  suddenly,  "for  if  there  is  anything 


24  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

of  Molly  in  her,  life  according  to  the  Blair 
standard  may  pall,  and,"  whimsically,  "her 
mixture  of  natures  be  vexed  within  her." 

Austen  took  the  Blairs  seriously,  and  at 
any  time  he  disliked  the  personal  or  the 
playful.  He  spoke  coldly.  "  Having  given 
the  child  over  to  you  from  the  moment  of  ar- 
rival, of  this  initiatory  tone  you  are  taking 
I  shall  say  no  more.  Duties  you  assume  you 
do  best  your  own  way." 

Harriet  arched  her  brows.  'You  mean, 
having  found  better  results  followed  the 
withdrawal  of  your  over-sight  of  me  as  mis- 
tress of  our  house,  you  are  going  to  let  me 
alone  in  this?" 

"  Exactly,"  said  her  brother,  "  and  there- 
fore on  the  subject,  now  or  hereafter,  I  shall 
say  no  more."  And  it  was  eminently  char- 
acteristic of  him  that  he  never  did. 

Meanwhile  up-stairs  the  child  had  gone 


PART   ONE  25 

through  with  the  bath  and  the  supper  like 
an  automaton  in  Nelly's  hands. 

"She  said  'yes'  when  I  asked  her  any- 
thing," Nelly  reported  later  to  the  cook; 
"or  she  said  'no'.  And  her  lips  were  set 
that  hard  she  might  a'most  have  been  Mr. 
Austen's  own  child." 

And  that  was  all  Nelly  saw  in  the  little 
creature  she  tucked  into  the  huge,  square 
bedstead  under  the  bobinet  mosquito  bar. 
But  no  sooner  had  Nelly's  footsteps  ceased 
along  the  hall  than  the  child,  as  one  throwing 
off  an  armour  of  repression,  rolled  out  of  the 
high  bed  and  from  under  the  bar,  flinging 
and  disarranging  the  neat  covers  with  pass- 
ionate fury,  sobbing  wildly.  A  bead  of  gas 
lit  the  room.  She  pattered  across  the  floor 
to  the  opened  trunk,  and  when  the  little 
figure,  stumbling  over  its  gown,  stole  back 
to  bed,  a  heartrendingly  battered,  plaster- 


26  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

headed  doll  was  clasped  in  its  arms.  And, 
as  the  voices  of  children  at  play  on  the  side- 
walk came  up  through  the  open  windows, 
the  child,  shaken  with  crying  —  the  more 
passionate  because  of  long  repression  - 
was  declaring:  "Sally  Ann,  baby,  I  couldn't 
never  have  given  you  up,  not  even  if  I  was 
your  own  truly  mother,  Sally  Ann,  I  couldn't, 
never." 


CHAPTER  THREE 

Down-stairs  the  evening  passed  as  evenings 
usually  did  when  Harriet  and  Austen  were 
alone.  There  were  not  even  the  varyings 
from  parlour  to  front  door  that  the  heat 
seemed  to  necessitate  for  the  rest  of  the 
neighbourhood.  Front  porches  are  sociable 
things.  The  Blairs'  was  the  only  house  on 
the  street  without  one. 

The  evening  passed  with  the  brother  and 
sister  at  opposite  sides  of  the  black,  marble- 
topped  table  in  the  long  parlour,  she  em- 
broidering on  a  strip  of  cambric  with  nice 
skill,  he  quickly  and  deftly  cutting  the  wrap- 
pers and  pages  of  papers  and  magazines 


28  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

accumulated  in  his  absence.  To  undertake 
just  what  he  could  do  justice  to  and  keep 
abreast  of  it,  was  the  method  by  which  he 
accomplished  more  than  any  two  men,  in 
business,  in  church  affairs,  in  civic  duties, 
for  the  man  took  his  citizenship  seriously. 
Both  brother  and  sister  had  been  raised  to 
economy  of  time,  yet  sometimes  she  mocked 
at  herself  for  her  many  excellencies  and 
sometimes  sighed,  while  he  - 

At  ten  o'clock  Harriet  rolled  her  work  to- 
gether and  said  good-night,  ascending  the 
crimson-carpeted  stairway  with  the  unhur- 
ried movement  of  an  Olympian  goddess; 
that  is,  if  an  Olympian  goddess  could  have 
been  so  genuinely  above  concern  about  it. 

Her  room,  a  front  one  on  the  second  floor, 
had  a  look  of  spaciousness  and  exquisite 
order.  She  moved  about,  adjusting  a  shade, 
setting  a  gas-bracket  at  some  self-imposed 


PART   ONE  29 

angle  of  correctness,  giving  the  sheets  of  the 
opened  bed  a  touch  of  adjustment. 

It  was  the  price  paid  for  the  free  exercise 
of  individuality.  Already,  at  twenty-six, 
ways  were  becoming  habits. 

These  things  arranged,  she  passed  to  the 
adjoining  room,  from  to-night  given  to 
Alexina.  Turning  up  the  gas,  Harriet 
glanced  about  at  Nelly's  disposition  of 
things,  then  moved  to  the  bed. 

Whatever  were  the  emotions  called  forth 
by  the  relaxed  little  form,  softly  and  regular- 
ly breathing  against  a  battered  doll,  or  by 
the  essentially  babyish  face  with  the  fine, 
flaxen  hair  damp  and  clinging  about  the 
forehead,  the  Blairs  were  people  to  whom 
restraint  was  second  nature.  Whatever 
Harriet  felt  showed  only  in  solicitude  for  the 
child  who  had  thrown  aside  all  cover.  But 
as  she  drew  the  sheet  and  light  blanket  up, 


80  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

her  hand  touched  the  smoothness  of  a  bared 
little  limb.  It  brought  embarrassment.  She 
had  but  once  before  touched  the  bareness  of 
another's  body,  and  that  her  mother's,  and 
in  death. 

Was  it  shame,  this  surging  of  strange  hot- 
ness  through  her  ? 

The  refuge  of  a  Blair  was  always  action. 
She  stepped  to  the  bay  of  the  room  and  drew 
the  shutters  against  the  night-wind. 

Between  the  windows  stood  the  bureau. 
Harriet  paused,  arrested  by  a  daguerreo- 
type in  a  velvet  case  open  upon  it.  The 
child  must  have  left  it  there.  She  sat  down 
and  laying  the  picture  on  her  knee,  regarded 
it,  her  chin  in  her  palm. 

It  was  the  face  of  the  father  of  the  sleep- 
ing child,  dead  less  than  a  year,  for  whom 
his  sister  was  wearing  this  black  trailing  in 
folds  about  her. 


PART   ONE  31 

And  looking  on  his  face,  she  recalled  an- 
other, exquisite  in  pallor,  with  shadowy 
lashes,  the  face  of  Molly,  who  ten  months 
after  Alexander's  death  had  married  again; 
who  not  only  married  but  gave  up  her  child. 
Had  it  been  the  purpose  of  Alexander  to  test 
her  for  the  child's  sake?  She  had  been 
given  her  third  and  the  child  the  same,  with 
Austen  as  executor  and  guardian.  In  the 
event  of  Molly  marrying  again,  she  had  been 
given  choice.  She  might  relinquish  all  right 
in  the  remaining  third  and  keep  the  child,  or 
by  giving  up  the  child  could  claim  the  por- 
tion. And  the  estate  was  large.  In  ten 
months  Molly  had  chosen. 

And  yet,  thinking  of  these  things,  Har- 
riet bade  herself  be  just,  chief  tenet  in  the 
Blair  creed.  Was  she  so  certain  Alexander 
had  been  altogether  unhappy  in  his  mar- 
riage ?  May  not  compensations  arise  out  of 


32  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

a  man's  own  nature  if  he  cares  for  the 
woman  ?  For  Harriet  no  longer  asked  why 
her  brother  had  married  Molly.  She  knew, 
knew  that  the  thing  called  love  is  stronger 
than  reason,  than  life  —  some  even  claimed, 
than  death.  Not  that  she  knew  it  of  herself, 
this  calm,  poised  Harriet,  but,  watching, 
she  had  seen  its  miracles. 

And  out  of  this,  Alexander  may  have 
drawn  his  compensation,  for,  stronger  than 
the  hourly  friction  of  his  daily  life,  stronger 
than  the  hurt  of  outraged  conventionality, 
thrift,  and  pride,  stronger  that  the  jealousy 
which  must  have  often  assailed  him,  had 
not  love  survived  in  Alexander  to  the  end, 
love  that  protected  and  concealed  Molly's 
failings  from  his  own  people  ? 

Suddenly,  over  Harriet  swept  the  breath 
of  roses  coming  into  an  open  breakfast 
room,  and  she  saw  a  stern-lipped  man  lift, 


PART   ONE  33 

enfold  a  child- woman  to  him  for  a  moment, 
and  as  fiercely  put  her  from  him  and  go 
out. 

Harriet,  breathing  quickly,  put  her  broth- 
er's picture  back,  and  going  to  the  bed,  lifted 
the  bar  and  drew  the  sheet  again  over  the 
child.  Then  she  stood  looking  down.  What 
manner  of  little  creature  was  this  child  of 
Alexander  and  Molly  ? 

Glancing  about  to  assure  herself  all  was 
in  order,  she  put  the  light  out,  and,  with 
hand  outstretched  against  the  darkness, 
moved  to  the  door,  when  there  swept  over 
her  again  the  vision  of  Molly  clinging  to 
Alexander,  and  again  she  felt  the  surrender 
of  the  man,  the  fierce  closing  of  his  arms, 
and  again  she  was  shaken  by  his  passion. 

And  even  after  she  reached  her  room 
and  sat  down  at  her  desk  to  the  ledger  of 
household  accounts,  it  came  over  her#  and 


84  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

she  paused,  her  hand  pressed  to  her  hot 
cheek. 

But  that  a  little  creature  had  cried  itself  to 
sleep  in  the  next  room  she  did  not  dream. 
She  would  have  cried  herself,  had  she  known 
it,  she,  to  whom  tears  came  seldom  and  hard. 
But  she  was  a  slow  awakening  soul,  groping, 
and  she  did  not  know. 


CHAPTER   FOUR 

The  next  morning  Harriet  sat  in  Alexina's 
room  putting  criss-cross  initials  on  a  pile  of 
unmarked  little  garments.  It  was  part  of 
the  creed  that  clothes  be  marked. 

Presently,  as  the  child  came  to  her  aunt's 
knee  for  a  completed  garment,  Harriet  laid 
a  hand  on  the  little  shoulder.  Demonstra- 
tion came  hard  and  brought  a  flush  of  em- 
barrassment with  it. 

"Alexina,"  she  said,  "you  haven't  men- 
tioned your  mother!" 

The  child  stood  silent  but  there  came  a 
repeated  swallowing  in  her  throat  while  a 
slow  red  welled  up  over  the  little  face. 


86  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

Harriet  had  a  feeling  of  sudden  liking  and 
understanding.  ;<  You  would  rather  — you 
prefer  not?" 

The  child  nodded,  but  later,  as  if  from 
some  fear  of  appearing  unresponsive,  she 
brought  an  album  from  her  trunk  and  spread 
it  open  on  Harriet's  knee.  She  seemed  a 
loyal  small  soul  to  her  kinsfolk,  mainly  her 
mother's  people,  and  turning  the  leaves  went 
through  the  enumeration. 

At  one  page  — "  Daddy,"  she  said. 

"Daddy"  applied  in  a  baby's  cadence  to 
Alexander!  Daddy!  It  was  a  revelation  of 
that  part  of  her  brother's  life  which  Harriet 
had  forgotten  in  accounting  assets.  "  Dad- 
dy," called  fearlessly,  with  intonation  an- 
consciously  dear  and  appealing.  And  Alex- 
ander had  been  that  to  his  child! 

There  was  no  picture  of  Molly,  but  there 
was  a  torn  and  vacant  space  facing  Alex- 


PART   ONE  87 

ander.  Had  the  child  removed  one?  She 
bore  resentment  then  ?  Harriet  had  no  idea 
how  far  a  child  of  nine  could  comprehend 
and  feel  the  situation. 

She  would  have  been  surprised  at  other 
things  a  child  of  nine  can  feel.  If  the  rou- 
tine of  the  house  dragged  dully  to  Alexina, 
Harriet  never  suspected  it.  The  personal 
attention  was  detailed  to  Nelly,  who  divined 
more  —  Nelly,  the  freckle-faced,  humorous- 
eyed  house  girl,  taken  from  the  Orphans' 
Home  and  trained  by  Harriet's  mother.  But, 
then,  Nelly  had  been  orphaned  herself,  and 
had  known  those  first  days  following  asylum 
consignment  and  perhaps  had  not  forgot. 
Her  sympathy  expressed  itself  through  the 
impersonal,  the  Blair  training  not  having 
encouraged  the  other. 

"  Such  a  be-yewtif ul  dress,"  said  she,  lay- 
ing out  the  clothes  for  her  charge. 


88  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

Which  was  true;  no  child  of  Molly's 
would  have  suffered  for  clothes,  Molly  lov- 
ing them  too  well  herself. 

"And  such  be-yewtiful  slippers,"  said 
Nelly,  with  Alexina  in  her  lap,  pulling  up 
the  little  stocking  and  buttoning  the  strap 
about  the  ankle. 

Alexina's  hand  held  tight  to  Nelly's  hard, 
firm  arm,  steadying  herself.  Perhaps  she 
divined  the  intention.  "Can  I  come,  too, 
when  you  go  to  set  the  table  ?  "  she  asked. 

But  Harriet  never  suspected.  Nor  again, 
that  evening  while  she  and  Austen  read  un- 
der the  lamp,  did  Harriet  know  that  Alexina, 
standing  at  the  open  parlour  window  gazing 
at  the  children  playing  on  the  sidewalk,  was 
fighting  back  passionate  tears  of  an  out- 
raged love  and  a  baffling  sense  of  injustice. 

All  at  once  a  child's  treble  came  in  from 
the  pavement. 


PART   ONE  39 

"  Can't  you  come  play  ?  " 

Alexina  turned,  with  backward  look  of 
eager  inquiry  to  her  aunt,  who  had  come  be- 
hind her  to  see  who  called. 

"As  you  please;  go  if  you  want,"  said 
Harriet  good-humouredly. 

Austen,  too,  glanced  out.  Tiptoe  on  the 
stone  curbing  of  the  iron  fence  perched  a 
little  girl,  spokesman  for  the  group  of  chil- 
dren behind  her. 

"  Who  is  the  child  ?  "  he  asked  his  sister. 

"Her  name  is  Carringford.  She  is  a 
grand-daughter  of  the  old  Methodist  minis- 
ter who  lives  at  the  corner;  secretary  of  his 
church  board,  or  something,  isn't  he  ?  I've 
noticed  two  or  three  little  Carringfords  play- 
ing in  the  yard  as  I  go  by,  and  all  of  them 
handsome." 

Austen  placed  them  at  once.  The  child's 
mother  was  the  daughter  of  the  old  minis- 


40  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

ter,  and,  with  husband  and  children,  lived 
in  the  little  brown  house  with  him.  An  in- 
terest in  the  details  of  the  human  affairs 
about  him  was  an  unexpected  phase  in 
Austen's  character.  He  liked  to  know 
what  a  man  was  doing,  his  income,  his 
habits,  his  family  ties. 

"I  know  Carringford,"  he  remarked; 
"he  is  bookkeeper  for  Williams,  a  good, 
steady  man.  As  you  say,  a  handsome  child, 
exceedingly  so." 

Harriet  watched  until  the  little  niece 
joined  the  group  outside.  "  Gregarious  little 
creatures  they  seem  to  be,"  she  remarked. 
There  was  good-humour  in  her  tone,  but 
there  was  no  understanding. 

The  next  day  was  Sunday.  On  Monday 
it  rained.  Tuesday  evening  Alexina  stood 
at  the  parlour  window  as  before,  looking  out. 
The  little  figure  looked  very  solitary. 


PART   ONE  41 

"May  I  go  play?"  suddenly  she  asked. 
The  voice  was  low,  there  was  no  note  even 
of  wistfulness,  it  was  merely  the  question. 
There  are  children  who  suffer  silently. 

"  Why  not  ?  "  Harriet  rejoined,  looking  up 
from  her  magazine.  She  was  the  last  per- 
son to  restrict  any  one  needlessly. 

The  little  niece  went  forth.  The  children 
had  not  come  for  her  again.  Perhaps  they 
did  not  want  her,  but,  even  with  this  fear 
upon  her,  go  she  must. 

At  the  gate  she  paused  and  with  the  big 
house  in  its  immaculate  yard  behind  her, 
gazed  up  and  down. 

It  was  a  quiet  street  with  the  houses 
set  irregularly  back  from  fences  of  varying 
patterns,  and  the  brick  sidewalks  were  raised 
and  broken  in  places  by  the  roots  of  huge 
sycamores  and  maples  along  the  curbs. 

But  the  cropped  head  of  Alexina  turned 


42  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

this  way  and  that  in  vain.  The  street  was 
deserted,  the  stillness  lonesome.  She  swal- 
lowed hard.  She  knew  where  the  little  girl 
named  Emily  Carringford  lived,  for  she  had 
pointed  out  the  house  that  first  evening  as 
they  ran  past  in  play,  so  Alexina  slowly 
crossed  the  street,  hoping  Emily  might  be 
at  her  gate. 

But  first,  as  she  went  along,  came  a  wide 
brick  cottage,  sitting  high  above  a  base- 
ment, a  porch  across  the  front.  She  gazed 
in  between  the  pickets  of  the  fence,  for  it 
seemed  nice  in  there.  The  ground  was 
mossy  under  the  trees,  and  the  untrimmed 
bushes  made  bowers  with  their  branches. 
She  would  like  to  play  in  this  yard.  Her 
eyes  travelled  on  to  the  house.  A  gentleman 
sat  in  a  cane  arm-chair  at  the  foot  of  the 
steps,  smoking,  and  on  the  porch  was  a  lady 
in  a  white  dress  with  ribbons.  The  house 


PART  ONE  48 

lookecTold  and  the  yard  looked  old,  and  so 
did  the  gentleman,  but  the  lady  was  young; 
maybe  she  was  going  to  a  party,  for  it  was  a 
gauzy  dress  and  the  ribbons  were  rosy. 

Alexina  liked  the  cottage  and  the  lady, 
and  the  big,  wide  yard,  and  somehow  did 
not  feel  as  lonesome  as  she  had.  She  start- 
ed on  to  find  Emily,  but  at  that  moment  the 
gate  of  the  cottage  swung  out  across  her  path. 
How  could  she  know  that  the  boy  upon  it, 
lonely,  too,  had  planned  the  thing  from  the 
moment  of  her  starting  up  the  street  ? 

"Oh,"  said  Alexina,  and  stopped,  and 
looked  at  the  boy,  uncomfortably  immac- 
ulate in  fresh  white  linen  clothes,  but  he  was 
absorbed  in  the  flight  of  a  bird  across  the 
rosy  western  sky. 

"Come  and  play,"  said  the  straightfor- 
ward Alexina.  Companionship  was  what 
she  was  in  search  of. 


44  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

The  boy,  without  looking  at  her,  shook 
his  head,  not  so  much  as  if  he  meant  no,  but 
as  if  he  did  not  know  how  to  say  yes. 

Perhaps  she  divined  this,  for  approach- 
ing the  gate  and  fingering  its  hasp,  she 
asked, 

"Why?" 

The  boy,  assuming  a  sort  of  passivity  of 
countenance  as  for  cover  to  shyness,  kicked 
at  the  gate,  then  scowled  as  he  twisted  his 
neck  within  the  stiff  circle  of  his  round  col- 
lar with  the  combative  air  of  one  who  wars 
against  starch.  "There's  nobody  to  play 
with,"  he  said;  "they've  all  gone  to  the 
Sunday-school  picnic.  I  don't  go  to  that 
church,"  nodding  in  the  direction  of  a  brick 
structure  down  the  street. 

;*  You  go  to  the  same  one  as  my  Aunt  Har- 
riet and  my  uncle,"  Alexina  informed  him. 
"  I  saw  you  there,  and  your  name  is  William. 


PART   ONE  45 

I  heard  the  lady  calling  you  that,  coming 
out." 

The  gate  which  had  swung  in  swung  out 
again,  bringing  the  boy  nearer  this  out- 
spoken little  girl,  whose  unconsciousness 
was  putting  him  more  at  his  ease.  He  had 
seen  her  at  church,  too,  but  he  could  not 
have  told  her  so. 

"  What's  the  rest  of  your  name  —  William 
what?" 

Such  a  question  makes  a  shy  person  very 
miserable,  but  the  interest  was  pleasing. 

"William  Leroy,"  said  the  boy  tersely. 
Then,  as  if  in  amend  for  the  abruptness,  he 
added:  "Sometimes  they  call  it  the  other 
way,  King  William,  you  know." 

"Who  do?" 

"Father  and  mother." 

"You  mean  when  you're  pretending?" 

The  gate  stopped  in  its  jerkings.     There 


46  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

had  been  enough  about  the  name.  He  was 
an  imperious  youngster.  "No,  I  don't," 
he  said;  "it's  William  Leroy  backward." 

The  little  girl  looked  mystified,  but  evi- 
dently thought  best  to  change  a  subject 
about  which  the  person  concerned  seemed 
testy.  "  I  saw  one  once,"  she  said  sociably; 
"a  real  one.  He  was  in  a  carriage,  with 
horses  and  soldiers,  and  a  star  on  his  coat." 

"One  what?"  demanded  the  boy. 

"A  king,  a  real  one,  you  know." 

Now,  this  princeling  on  the  gate  knew 
when  his  own  sex  were  guying  and  he 
knew  the  remedy.  He  did  not  know  this 
little  girl,  but  he  would  not  have  thought 
it  of  her. 

"A  real  —  what ?"  he  demanded. 

"A  real  king,  but  they  don't  say  king; 
they  say  *  1'empereur.' ' 

William   looked   stern.     "I   don't  know 


PART   ONE  47 

what  you  mean,"  he  returned;  "where  did 
you  see  any  king?" 

The  grave  eyes  were  not  one  bit  abashed. 
"In  Paris,  where  we  lived,"  said  the  little 
girl.  "There  was  a  boy  named  Tommy 
watching  at  the  hotel  window,  too,  and  he 
said,  'Vive  le  roi,'  and  Marie,  my  bonne,  she 
said, '  Sh  —  h :  1'empereur ! ' ' 

The  effect  of  this  was  unexpected,  for  the 
boy,  descending  from  the  gate,  turned  a 
keenly  irradiated  countenance  upon  her. 
"Do  you  mean  Paris,  my  father's  Paris, 
Paris  in  France  ?" 

"  Why,"  said  the  little  girl,  regarding  him 
with  some  surprise,  "yes."  For  he  was  tak- 
ing her  by  the  hand  in  a  masterful  fashion. 

"Come  in,"  he  commanded.  "I  want 
you  to  tell  father;  that's  father  there." 

But  Alexina,  friendly  soul,  went  willingly 
enough  with  him  through  the  gate  and  up 


48  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

the  wide  pavement  between  bordering  beds 
of  unflourishing  perennials. 

"  Listen,  father,"  William  Leroy  was  call- 
ing to  the  gentleman  at  the  foot  of  the  steps; 
"she's  been  in  Paris,  your  Paris." 

The  gentleman's  ivory-tinted  fingers  re- 
moved the  cigar  from  his  lips.  As  he  turned 
the  western  light  fell  on  his  lean,  clean- 
shaven face,  thin-flanked  beneath  high 
cheek  bones.  From  between  grey  brows 
thick  as  a  finger  rose  a  Louis  Philippe  nose, 
its  Roman  prominence  accentuated  by  the 
hollowness  of  the  cheeks.  The  iron-grey 
hair,  thrown  back  off  the  face,  fell,  square- 
cut,  to  the  coat  collar  behind. 

Never  a  word  spoke  the  gentleman,  only, 
cigar  in  hand,  waited,  eagle-countenanced, 
sphinx-like.  Yet  straight  Alexina  came  to 
his  side,  and  her  baby  eyes,  quick  to  dilate, 
now  confidingly  calm,  met  the  ones  looking 


PART   ONE  49 

out  piercingly  from  their  retreat  beneath  the 
heavy  brows,  and  quite  as  a  matter  of  course 
a  little  hand  rested  on  his  knee  as  she  stood 
there,  and  equally  as  naturally,  his  face  im- 
passive, did  the  fingers  of  the  gentleman 
close  upon  it. 

A  silent  compact,  silently  entered  into,  for 
before  a  word  was  interchanged  the  ani- 
mated contralto  of  the  lady  came  down  from 
above.  "  Who  is  the  little  girl,  son  ?  What 
is  your  name,  dear?" 

Son's  wince  was  visible.  He  had  no 
knowledge  of  the  little  girl's  name,  but  he 
did  not  want  to  say  so. 

But  she  was  answering  for  herself,  look- 
ing up  at  the  pretty  lady,  dressed  as  though 
for  a  party.  "It's  Mary  Alexina  Blair," 
she  was  saying,  "but  my  Aunt  Harriet  says 
it's  to  be  just  Alexina  now." 

"Oh,"  said  the  lady.     There  was  a  little 


60  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

silence  before  she  spoke  again.  "It  must 
be  Alexander  Blair's  child,  Georges.  Come 
up,  dear,  and  let  me  see  you." 

But  King  William,  balancing  himself  on 
the  back  of  his  father's  chair,  objected. 
"Hurry,  then,  mother,"  he  demanded;  "we 
want  to  play." 

But  Alexina  had  gone  up  the  steps  obedi- 
ently. The  eyes  of  the  lady  were  dark  and 
slumbrous,  but  in  them  was  the  slightly 
helpless  look  of  short  vision.  She  drew  the 
child  close  for  inspection. 

The  fair  hair,  the  even  brows,  the  clear- 
gazing  eyes  she  seemed  to  have  expected, 
but  the  dilation  in  those  same  wondering 
eyes  raised  to  hers,  the  short  upper-lip,  the 
full  under  one  that  trembled  —  these  the 
lady  did  not  know.  "A  sensitiveness,  a 
warmth,"  she  said,  half  aloud.  What  did 
she  mean  ?  Then  she  raised  her  voice. 


PART   ONE  51 

"  See,  Willy  Leroy,  how  she  stands  for  me, 
while  you  pull  away  if  I  so  much  as  lay  my 
hand  on  you." 

"But  you  look  so  close,"  objected  Willy, 
"and  you  fix  my  hair,  and  you  say  my 
collar  ain't  straight.  You've  seen  her  now, 
mother;  you've  seen  her  close,  and  I  want 
her  to  come  sit  on  the  step." 

"Go,  then,  little  Mary  Alexina  Blair," 
said  the  lady;  "he's  a  little  ingrate  whose 
mother  has  to  barter  with  him  for  every  con- 
cession he  makes  her."  And,  smiling  at  her- 
self, her  face  alight  and  arch  with  the  ani- 
mation of  her  smile,  Charlotte  Leroy  sat 
back  in  the  scarlet  settee  and  respread  her 
draperies  as  a  bird  its  plumage,  touching  the 
ribbons  at  her  waist  and  throat,  resettling 
them  with  the  air  of  one  who  takes  frank 
pleasure  in  their  presence  and  becomingness. 
This  done,  she  viewed  her  hands,  charming 


52  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

hands  heavy  with  costly  rings,  and  finally, 
reassured  at  all  points,  she  relaxed  her  buoy- 
ant figure  and  looked  around  with  smiling 
return  to  her  surroundings.  It  was  for  no 
party  she  was  dressed  but  for  her  own  satis- 
faction. 


CHAPTER   FIVE 

"Your  initials  spell  Mab,"  King  William 
was  telling  Alexina  as  they  sat  on  the  step; 
"that  means  you'll  be  rich.  Mine  don't 
spell  anything.  I'm  named  for  my  grand- 
father up  in  Woodford,  William  Ransome. 
He's  dead.  Father's  don't  either  —  Geor- 
ges Gautier  Hippolyte  Leroy.  His  father 
ran  away  from  France  because  he  was  a 
Girondist,  and  came  to  Louisville  because  it 
was  French,  and  father's  been  to  Paris,  too; 
haven't  you,  father?" 

The  gentleman  thus  adjured  removed  his 
cigar  and  addressed  his  wife.  "  It  begins  to 
amount  to  garrulity.  If  the  opposite  sex 


54  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

produces  this  at  ten,  what  are  we  to  expect 
later  on?" 

Mrs.  Leroy's  voice  had  a  note  of  defence 
in  it,  as  if  she  could  not  brook  even  humor- 
ous criticism  of  the  boy.  It  was  plain  where 
the  passionate  ardour  in  her  nature  was 
centred. 

"I'm  glad,  I'm  glad  to  see  it,"  she  de- 
clared. "I  was  afraid  it  was  not  in  him, 
I  was  beginning  to  fear  he  was  a  self- 
sufficient  little  monster." 

But  her  son  was  continuing  the  family  his- 
tory. "  Mother's  name  was  Charlotte  Ran- 
some;  wasn't  it,  mother?  When  I'm  a 
man  I'm  going  to  buy  my  grandfather's 
stock  farm  back,  and  we'll  live  there;  won't 
we,  mother?" 

But  the  impulsive  Charlotte,  veering 
around,  here  took  her  husband's  side :  " '  I'm 
going  to  —  I'm  going  to,' "  she  mimicked  the 


PART   ONE  55 

boy,  then  began  to  chant  derisively  as  in 
words  familiar  to  both : 

"And  if  you  don't  believe  me 
And  think  I  tell  a  lie  — " 

But  it  only  gave  him  an  idea.  He  was  not 
often  a  host.  It  was  going  to  his  head. 
"Wait!"  he  ordered,  to  whom  it  was  not 
quite  clear,  and  tore  into  the  house,  to  be 
back  almost  at  once,  bearing  a  beribboned 
guitar. 

"Now,"  he  said,  depositing  it  upon  his, 
mother's  lap;  "now,  sing  it  for  her;  sing  it 
right,  mother.  It's  'The  Ram  of  Derby."' 
This  to  Alexina,  with  a  sudden  shyness  as  he 
found  himself  addressing  her. 

But  she,  unconscious  soul,  did  not  recogr 
nize  it,  hers  being  an  all-absorbed  interest, 
and,  reassured,  young  William  went  on: 

"There  was  a  William  Ransome  once, 


66  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

when  he  was  little,  sat  on  General  Washing- 
ton's knee,  and  General  Washington  sang 
him  'The  Ram  of  Derby.'  Go  on,  mother, 
sing  it." 

And  Charlotte,  with  eyes  laughing  down 
on  the  two  upturned  faces,  "  went  on,"  her 
jewelled  fingers  bringing  the  touch  of  a  prac- 
tised hand  upon  the  strings,  her  buoyant 
figure  responsive  to  the  rhythm,  while  into 
the  Munchausen  recital  she  threw  a  dash,  a 
swing  that  rendered  the  interest  breathless. 

"  There  was  a  ram  of  Derby 

I've  often  heard  it  said, 
He  was  the  greatest  sheep,  sir, 

That  ever  wore  a  head. 
And  if  you  don't  believe  TUB 

And  think  I  tell  a  liet 
Just  go  down  to  Derby 

And  see  as  well  as  I. 


The  horns  upon  this  ram,  sirt 
They  reached  up  to  the  sky, 


PART   ONE  57 

The  eagles  built  their  nest  there, 

For  I  heard  the  young  ones  cry. 
And  if  you  don't  believe  me,  etc.,  etc. 

"  The  wool  upon  this  ram,  sir, 

It  grew  down  to  the  ground, 
The  devil  cut  it  off,  sir, 

To  make  a  morning  gown. 
And  if  you  don't  believe  me,  etc.,  etc.9' 

And  so  on  through  the  tale.  King  William, 
at  her  knees,  clapped  his  hands.  Alexina, 
by  him,  clapped  hers,  too,  for  joy  of  com- 
panionship, while  the  third  listener  sat  with 
unchanging  countenance  below.  But  he 
liked  it,  somehow  one  knew  he  liked  it,  knew 
that  he  was  listening  down  there  in  the  dusk. 
Perhaps  Charlotte  knew  it,  too.  The  vi- 
brant twang  slowed  to  richer  chords,  broke 
into  rippling  chromatic,  caught  a  new  meas- 
ure, a  minor  note,  and  her  contralto  began: 

"  /  am  going  far  away,  far  away  to  leave  you  now, 
To  the  Mississippi  River  I  am  going  — " 


66  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

But  this  was  only  so  much  suggestion  for 
her  son's  active  brain.  "Tell  her,  mother," 
he  begged,  pulling  at  Charlotte's  sleeve; 
"tell  her  about  the  'King  William.'" 

"  And  it  has  lain  dormant,  this  egotism, 
unsuspected,"  came  up  from  out  of  the  dusk. 

Charlotte's  fingers  swept  the  chords,  her 
eyes  fixed  adoringly  on  her  little  son's  face, 
the  while  she  sang  on,  absently,  softly: 

"  Down  in  my  oV  cabin  home, 

There  lies  my  sister  an'  my  brother, 
There  lies  my  wife,  the  joy  of  my  life, 

An'  the  child  in  the  grave  with  its  mother." 

But  King  William,  far  from  being  har- 
rowed by  the  woeful  enumeration,  laid  an 
imperious  hand  on  the  strings.  "Tell  her, 
mother;  I  want  you  to  tell  her." 

"  Come  then,  and  kiss  mother,  and  I  will." 
He  moved  the  intervening  step  and  sub- 


PART   ONE  59 

mitted  a  cheek  reluctantly.  "  Just  one  and 
you  said  you'd  tell." 

But  Charlotte,  imperious  herself,  waved 
him  off;  she'd  none  of  him  now.  "It's 
because  he's  a  vain  boy,  little  Mary  Alexina 
Blair,  and  filled  with  self-importance,  that 
he  wants  you  to  know,  and  he  only  wants 
me  to  tell  you  because  he  has  not  quite  the 
assurance  to  do  it  himself;  that  is  why 
he  wants  me  to  tell  about  the  great,  white- 
pro  wed  Argo— 

"  We  call  them  bows,  not  prows,"  came  up 
out  of  the  dusk. 

But  she  refused  the  correction.  " — the 
white-prowed  Argo  that  is  building  across 
the  river,  to  go  in  search  of  a  golden  fleece 
for  little  Jason  here,  a  boat  large,  oh  larger 
even  than  those  other  boats  of  little  Jason's 
father,  the  Captain  down  there,  which  used 
to  float  up  and  down  the  Mississippi,  and 


60  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

which  vanished  one  day  into  the  maw  of  the 
Confederacy— 

But  Jason  was  lifting  his  voice.  "Not 
that  way;  make  her  stop,  father;  that  ain't 
the  way!" 

But  mother  was  not  to  be  hurried  out  of 
her  revenge.  "  And  this  big,  white  ark  is  one 
day  going  to  float  off  on  the  flood  of  Hope, 
bearing  Jason  and  his  father  and  his  mother, 
the  last  plank  of  fortune  between  them 
and—" 

Jason  was  beating  with  his  hands  on  the 
steps.  "Make  her  stop,  father;  make  her 
tell  it  right;  she  don't  understand  what 
mother  means.  Do  you?"  with  an  appeal 
to  the  absorbed  Alexina. 

That  small  soul  jumped  and  looked  em- 
barrassed to  know  what  to  say,  for  direct 
admissions  are  not  always  polite.  "I  had 
an  ark  once,"  she  stated,  "  but  I  sucked  the 


PART   ONE  61 

red  off  Noah,  and  Marie,  my  bonne,  took  it 
away." 

Leaning  down,  Charlotte  Leroy  swept  the 
baby- voiced  creature  up  into  her  lap.  There 
was  a  passion  of  maternity  in  the  act.  "  You 
innocent,"  she  said,  and  held  her  fast. 

It  was  nice  to  be  there;  the  ribbons  and 
the  lacy  ruffles  were  soft  beneath  her  cheek, 
and  the  dark  eyes  of  the  lady  were  smiling 
down. 

The  child  turned  suddenly  and  clung  to 
Charlotte  with  passionate  responsiveness. 

"  It's  about  the  boat  his  father  is  building, 
Willy  wants  you  to  know,  little  Mab,"  the 
lady  was  telling  her,  "and  how,  the  other 
day,  the  Captain  down  there  and  our  friends 
and  Willy  and  I  went  aboard  her,  on  the 
ways  at  the  shipyard  over  the  river,  and  how, 
at  the  ax-stroke,  as  she  slid  down  and  out 
across  the  water,  Willy  broke  the  bottle  on 


62  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

the  bow  and  christened  the  boat  *King 
William/" 

"  Just  so,"  came  up  in  the  Captain's  voice. 

The  moon  was  rising  slowly. 

"There's  some  one  at  the  gate,"  cried 
Willy. 

"It's  for  me,"  said  Alexina,  starting  up; 
"it's  Nelly  and  she's  hunting  me." 

Later,  Nelly,  leading  her  across  the  street, 
was  saying,  "  I  don't  believe  Miss  Harriet  is 
going  to  like  it  when  she  knows  where  you've 
been." 

"Why?" 

But  Nelly  couldn't  say;  "except  that 
they're  the  only  ladies  on  the  street  not 
knowing  each  other,"  she  explained. 

The  two  went  in.  Alexina  dropped  Nel- 
ly's hand  and  walked  into  the  parlour  and 
across  to  Harriet's  knee.  Austen  sat  read- 
ing on  the  other  side  of  the  table. 


PART   ONE  63 

"I've  been  over  to  a  boy's  house,"  said 
Alexina;  "his  name  is  King  William  and 
their  other  name  is  Leroy." 

Harriet  held  the  cambric  strip  of  em- 
broidery from  her  and  viewed  it.  "Austen," 
she  asked,  "is  Alexina  to  play  indiscrim- 
inately with  the  children  on  the  square?" 

Austen  looked  across  at  his  sister.  "It 
is  within  your  authority  to  decide,"  he  re- 
turned, "but  I  know  of  no  reason  why  she 
should  not." 

Harriet  made  no  response.  Outwardly 
she  was  concerned  with  some  directions  to 
Nelly,  waiting  to  take  the  child  to  bed,  but 
inwardly  she  was  wondering  if  Austen  ever 
could  have  cared  for  this  Charlotte  Ran- 
some. 

He  sat  long  after  Harriet  had  gone.  Then, 
rising  abruptly,  he  went  out  the  front  door 
and  walked  to  the  corner  of  the  house.  It 


64  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

was  dark  in  the  coachman's  room  above 
the  stable,  and  the  master  could  go  to  bed 
secure  that  his  oil  was  not  being  wasted. 

That  was  all,  yet  he  did  not  go  in.  The 
night  was  perfect,  full  of  moonlight  and  the 
scent  of  earth  and  growing  things.  It  was 
so  still  the  houses  along  the  street  seemed 
asleep. 

Almost  furtively,  the  gaze  of  Austen  lifted 
to  the  cottage,  dark  and  silent  across  the 
way.  He  had  been  the  one  who  would  not 
forgive ;  the  other  had  been  only  an  impetu- 
ous girl. 

He  stood  there  long.  Perhaps  his  face 
was  colder,  his  lips  pressed  to  a  thinner  line; 
perhaps  it  was  the  moonlight.  Then  he 
turned  and  went  into  the  house. 


CHAPTER   SIX 

Alexina  came  to  Harriet  with  information. 

"Emily  goes  to  school  to  her  aunt,  and 
King  William  goes  there,  too." 

"Do  they?"  returned  Harriet.  Her  in- 
terest was  good-humoured  rather  than  ar- 
dent. 

"  I'd  like  to  go,  too,"  said  her  niece. 

"Oh,"  from  Harriet,  understanding  at 
last ;  "  but  isn't  school  about  over  ?  " 

"There's  two  weeks  more." 

"  If  it  will  make  you  happy,  why  not,  if  the 
teacher  does  not  object  ?" 

So  Alexina  went  with  Emily  to  school. 
King  William  was  there,  but  he  hardly 


66  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

noticed  her,  seeming  gloomy  and  given  to 
taking  his  slate  off  into  corners. 

"He  don't  want  to  come,"  explained 
Emily;  "he's  the  only  boy." 

"  Then  what  does  he  come  for  ?  "  queried 
the  practical  Alexina. 

"  His  mother  won't  let  him  go  to  a  public 
school." 

There  was  more  to  be  learned  about  Wil- 
liam. He  fought  the  boys  who  went  to  the 
public  school,  because  they  jeered  him  in  his 
ignominy.  Alexina  saw  it  happening  up 
the  alley  but,  strangely  enough,  when  Wil- 
liam appeared  at  school,  he  seemed  cheered 
up,  though  something  of  a  wreck. 

Out  of  school,  Alexina  often  went  over  to 
Emily's  house  to  play.  There  were  no  ser- 
vants there,  but  her  mamma  beat  up  things 
in  crocks,  and  her  great-aunty,  a  brisk  little 
old  woman  with  sharp  eyes,  made  yeast 


PART   ONE  67 

cakes  and  dried  them  out  under  the  arbour 
and  milked  the  cow,  too,  and  Emily's  little 
brother,  Oliver,  carried  milk  to  the  neigh- 
bours. Once  in  the  spotless,  shining  kitchen, 
Alexina  was  allowed  to  wield  a  mop  in  a 
dish-pan  and,  still  again,  to  stir  at  batter  in 
a  bowl. 

In  the  room  which  would  have  been  the 
parlour  in  another  house,  Emily's  grand- 
father Pryor  sat  at  a  table  with  books 
around  him,  and  wrote  on  big  sheets  of  paper 
in  close  writing.  He  was  a  stem  old  man 
and  his  hair  stood  out  fine  and  white  about 
his  head.  Once,  as  he  passed  across  the 
front  porch,  he  looked  at  Emily,  then  stop- 
ped, pointing  to  the  chain  about  her  neck. 
It  was  Alexina's  little  gold  necklace  which 
Emily  had  begged  to  wear. 

"Take  it  off, "he  said. 

Emily  obeyed,  but  her  cheeks  were  flam- 


68  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

ing,  and  when  he  had  gone  she  threw  her 
head  back.  "When  I'm  grown,  I  mean  to 
have  them  of  my  own,  and  wear  them,  too," 
she  said. 

She  seemed  happier  away  from  home. 
"Let's  go  over  to  your  house,"  she  always 
said.  She  liked  grown  people,  too,  and 
Uncle  Austen  once  patted  her  head,  and 
after  she  had  gone  said  to  Aunt  Harriet: 
"A  handsome  child,  an  unusually  pleasing 
child." 

But  while  Alexina  played  thus  with 
Emily,  more  often  she  trudged  across  to 
King  William's. 

The  nature  of  engrossment  was  different 
over  there.  Often  as  not  it  was  theology, 
though  this,  to  be  sure,  was  the  Captain's 
word  for  it,  not  his  son's. 

Willy's  mother,  like  Aunt  Harriet,  was  a 
Presbyterian.  "  If  I  had  been  a  better  one," 


PART   ONE  69 

she  lamented  to  her  husband  one  evening, 
"  I  would  know  how  to  meet  his  questions 
now.  You  don't  take  one  bit  of  the  re- 
sponsibility of  his  religious  training,  Cap- 
tain Leroy." 

The  creed  of  King  William's  mamma, 
when  she  came  to  formulate  it,  seemed  a 
stern  one,  and  it  lost  nothing  in  its  setting 
forth  by  reason  of  her  determination  to  do 
her  duty  by  her  son. 

"Thank  Heaven  I  had  to  sit  under  these 
things  when  I  was  a  child,  however  I  hated 
it  then,  or  I  could  not  do  my  part  by  him 
now,"  she  told  the  Captain.  "  I  want  him," 
fervently,  "to  be  everything  I  am  not." 

"Which  might,"  suggested  the  Captain, 
"be  a  prig,  you  know." 

But  King  William,  listening,  drank  in 
these  things.  He  had  a  garden  patch  in  the 
back  yard  and  knew  the  nature  and  habits 


70  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

of  every  vegetable  in  it,  and  being  strictly  a 
utilitarian,  he  weeded  out  sickly  plants  and 
unknown  cotyledons  with  a  ruthless  hand. 

Alexina  expostulated.  "Maybe  it  hurts 
'em,"  she  feared. 

"Maybe  it  does,"  said  the  inexorable 
William;  "but  they  are  like  the  souls  born 
to  be  damned.  Put  'em  on  the  brush  pile 
there,  and  after  a  while  we'll  burn  'em." 

At  other  times  the  yard  was  a  sea-girt 
coral  reef  and  they  the  stranded  mariners. 
Generally  Alexina  accepted  everything.  The 
stories  were  new  to  her.  But  when  she  did 
have  knowledge  of  a  thing  she  stood  firm; 
for  instance,  about  the  ocean,  that  you  could 
not  land  every  few  moments  of  your  prog- 
ress and  throw  out  gang-planks. 

"For  I've  been  there,"  she  insisted,  "and 
you  couldn't,  you  know." 

At  times  they  adjourned  to  the  commons 


PART   ONE  71 

behind  the  stable,  which,  in  reality,  were 
plains  frequented  by  Indians,  or,  if  the  yard 
palled  or  rain  drove  them  in,  there  was 
fat,  black,  plausible  Aunt  Rose  in  the  base- 
ment kitchen  to  talk  to,  and  if  Aunt  Rose 
proved  fractious  and  drove  them  out,  to- 
gether with  her  own  brood  generally  skulk- 
ing around,  before  a  threatening  dish-rag  or 
broom,  there  was  Charlotte  to  be  beguiled 
from  more  serious  occupation  into  doing  her 
son's  bidding. 

Charlotte  was  always  busy.  The  cottage 
and  all  in  it  had  come  to  her  from  her 
father's  aunt.  She  had  been  accustomed 
to  seeing  the  windows,  the  furniture,  the  mir- 
rors, the  silver  door  knobs  shining;  there- 
fore, she  knew  such  things  ought  to  shine, 
and  since  there  was  no  one  in  these  days  but 
herself  to  do  it,  she  cleaned,  polished,  rub- 
bed, and  went  to  bed  limp. 


72  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

One  afternoon  in  the  late  fall,  when  the 
children  sought  her,  she  was  pasting  papers 
over  glasses  of  jelly.  "We  went  over  the 
river  to  see  the  boat  yesterday,"  King  Wil- 
liam was  saying  to  Alexina  as  they  came  in. 
"Tell  her  about  it,  mother;  about  the  gold 
star  at  the  bow. " 

The  papers  did  not  want  to  stick.  "  He's 
a  bad  boy,  little  Mab,"  Charlotte  informed 
her.  "He  made  me  take  him  over  before 
he'd  promise  to  go  to  the  party  he's  asked 
to.  He  wants  to  be  a  little  boor  who  won't 
know  how  to  act  when  he  grows  up." 

"I'm  never  goin*  to  parties  when  I'm 
grown  up,  so  what's  the  use  learning  how 
to  act  at  'em  now?"  argued  her  son. 

Charlotte  dropped  a  mucilaged  paper. 
"But  you  promised,"  she  reminded  him 
anxiously;  " you  promised - 

"Oh,  well — "  admitted  her  son. 


PART   ONE  73 

Charlotte  kept  a  fire  in  her  parlour.  Coal 
was  at  a  fabulous  price  in  the  South  that 
winter,  but  she  had  never  known  a  parlour 
without  a  fire,  and  here  she  and  the  children 
sat  in  the  afternoons,  the  Captain  often 
returning  early  and  joining  them. 

"Georges,"  said  Charlotte  upon  one  of 
these  occasions,  "  we  are  poor." 

The  Captain  smoked  in  silence.  Perhaps 
he  had  realized  it  before.  His  keen  eyes, 
however,  were  regarding  her. 

"But,"  said  Charlotte,  "we  go  on  acting 
as  though  we  were  rich." 

"Just  so,"  said  the  Captain. 

"When  your  trousers  get  shabby,  you 
order  more  like  them.  Did  you  ever  ask 
your  tailor  if  he  has  anything  cheaper  ?  " 

Now,  trousers  of  that  pearl  tint  peculiar 
to  the  finest  fabrics  were  as  characteristic  a 
part  of  the  Captain's  garb  as  were  the  black 


74  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

coat,  the  low-cut  vest,  the  linen  cambric 
handkerchiefs  like  small  tablecloths  for  size, 
the  tall  silk  hat,  and  the  Henry  Clay  collar 
above  the  black  silk  stock. 

"  Did  you  ever  ask  him  if  he  had  anything 
cheaper,  Georges  ?" 

"  I  can't  say,"  admitted  Georges,  "  that  I 
ever  did."  For  the  Captain  had  never  asked 
his  tailor  a  price  in  his  life.  When  the  bill 
came  he  paid  it.  But  it  takes  income  to 
meet  eccentricities  of  this  sort,  while  now— 

Did  the  Captain,  glancing  from  his  wife 
to  the  boy  on  the  floor,  seem  to  age,  to 
shrink  in  his  chair?  For  Charlotte  was 
thirty-two  and  the  boy  was  ten  and  the  Cap- 
tain was  nearing  sixty. 

"And  when  your  shirts  and  Willy's  things 
and  mine  give  out,  I've  been  going  right  on 
to  the  sisters  ordering  more.  Convent 
prices  are  high,  Georges." 


PART   ONE  75 

The  Captain  had  nothing  to  say. 

"Adele  has  been  telling  me  that  she  cuts 
down  her  eldest  boy's  things  for  the  little 
one."  Adele  was  the  widow  of  a  Confed- 
erate general.  "So  I  borrowed  her  pat- 
terns. Listening  to  Adele  talk,  I  realized, 
Georges,  that  you  and  Willy  and  I  have  to 
learn  how  to  be  poor." 

It  was  at  this  point  that  Charlotte  brought 
forth  from  the  chair  behind  her  a  volumi- 
nous broadcloth  cape,  such  as  men  then 
wore  for  outer  wrap,  and  spread  it  on  the 
mahogany  centre-table. 

"  It's  perfectly  good,  if  you  did  discard  it, 
and  I'm  going  to  cut  it  into  something  for 
Willy;  I  didn't  tell  Adele  I  never  had  tried, 
she  is  so  capable,  but  I  borrowed  her  pat- 
terns." And  Charlotte  brought  forth  a 
paper  roll. 

The  Captain,  in  the  arm-chair,  sat  and 


76  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

watched.  Alexina,  from  his  knee,  where  he 
had  a  way  of  lifting  her,  watched  too. 
Willy,  from  a  perch  on  the  arm  of  the  sofa, 
offered  suggestions. 

This  was  early  in  the  afternoon.  At  six 
o'clock  the  Captain,  lighting  another  of  an 
uninterrupted  series  of  cigars,  was  still 
watching  silently.  On  the  sofa  sat  Char- 
lotte, in  tears.  On  the  table,  tailor  fashion, 
sat  King  William,  sorting  patterns,  while 
Nelly,  who  had  come  for  Alexina,  stood  by 
and  directed. 

"How  does  he  know?"  Mrs.  Leroy, 
watching  her  son  a  little  anxiously,  asked 
the  Captain.  "I  wouldn't  like  him  to  de- 
velop such  a  bent.  He  doesn't  get  it  from 
you  —  or  from  me." 

"  I  look  at  my  legs,"  said  William,  "  and 
then  I  build  it  that  way." 

Another  afternoon  the  Captain  looked  up 


PART   ONE  77 

from  his  smoking  arid  spoke  to  Charlotte. 
The  children  were  on  the  floor  turning  the 
pages  of  a  picture  paper. 

"  We  have  succeeded  in  securing  the  loan 
on  a  mortgage  on  the  boat.  Cowan  ar- 
ranged it  through  his  bank.  It  was  at  a 
higher  rate  than  we  had  agreed  on,  but  we'd 
lost  all  the  time  we  could  spare.  We'll  push 
ahead  now  and  have  things  finished  by 
spring." 

That  night*  over  at  the  Blairs',  as  Alexina 
climbed  into  her  place  at  the  table  Austen 
was  speaking  to  Harriet.  "You  remember 
I  told  you  I  was  looking  for  an  investment 
of  the  proceeds  of  those  bonds  of  Alexina's 
which  matured  the  other  day?  This  mor- 
ning I  took  a  mortgage  on  a  boat  Cowan  is 
building  at  his  yard." 

Alexina  heard  her  name,  but  did  not  un- 
derstand. 


CHAPTER   SEVEN 

There  came  a  day  the  following  spring  when 
Alexina,  seeking  her  aunt,  wept. 

Harriet  gazed  at  her  dismayed,  at  a  loss. 
Heretofore  Alexina  had  taken  her  tears  to 
Nelly  or  had  kept  them  to  herself. 

"  They  are  going  away,"  she  said,  "  King 
William  and  them;  going  in  the  boat." 

This,  as  a  matter  to  cry  about,  was  a 
mystery  to  Harriet.  "Going  where?"  she 
asked. 

"To  get  the  golden  fleece,"  her  weeping 
niece  assured  her. 

"Well,"  said  Harriet  amused,  "let  us 
hope  they  may  find  it,  but  why  the  tears?" 


PART  ONE  79 

Alexina  got  up  and  carried  her  tears  to 
her  own  room.  It  spoke  her  infantile  ca- 
pacity to  discriminate  that  she  bore  away  no 
resentment;  there  are  things  that  the  Aunt 
Harriets  with  the  best  wills  in  the  world 
need  not  be  expected  to  understand. 

King  William's  mother,  telling  her,  had 
held  her  tight  and  rocked  her;  King  Wil- 
liam's father,  when  he  saw  her  lip  trembling 
afterward,  had  lifted  her  on  his  knee. 

Going  into  the  big,  high  room  which  was 
her  own,  Alexina  shut  the  door.  Then  she 
cast  herself  on  the  floor.  A  little  hand,  beat- 
ing about  wildly,  came  upon  Sally  Ann,  lying 
unregarded  there.  Gathering  her  in  fiercely, 
presently  the  sobs  grew  quieter.  Later  she 
wiped  her  eyes  upon  her  child  and,  kissing 
her  tenderly,  put  her  down  and  went  over 
to  King  William's ;  the  time  was  short  and 
she  could  have  Sally  Ann  afterward. 


80  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

The  next  day  the  cottage  was  closed  and 
the  shutters  made  fast.  Alexina  felt  lone- 
some even  to  look  over  there,  and  Sally  Anns 
are  but  silent  comforters. 

But  in  a  year  the  Leroys  came  back  from 
St.  Louis,  between  which  city  and  New 
Orleans  the  splendid  new  "King  William'* 
had  been  plying.  The  judgment  of  Cap> 
tain  Leroy  had  been  at  fault,  which  is  a  sad 
thing  when  a  man  is  sixty.  The  day  of  the 
steamboat  had  passed,  because  that  of  the 
railroad  had  come.  The  "King  William" 
as  a  venture  was  a  failure. 

So,  one  morning,  the  cottage  windows 
were  open  to  the  Virginia  creeper  outside 
them.  Nelly  whispered  the  news  to  Alex- 
ina at  breakfast,  and  the  child  could  not  eat 
for  hurry  to  be  through  and  go  over. 

It  was  as  if  King  William  had  been  watch- 
ing for  her,  for  he  came  running  to  the  gate 


PART   ONE  81 

and  took  her  hand  to  conduct  her  in.  He 
was  taller  and  thinner,  and  looked  different, 
and  neither  could  find  anything  to  say  on  the 
way. 

Charlotte  was  sitting  in  the  parlour,  her 
wraps  half-removed.  They  had  only  just 
arrived,  and  the  stillness  and  closeness  of 
a  newly  opened  house  was  about.  "How 
does  one  pack  furniture  for  moving,  Willy  ?" 
Charlotte  began  as  he  appeared. 

But  he  was  bringing  Alexina.  "  Tell  her 
about  it,  mother,"  he  said,  "so  she'll  know." 

Charlotte,  brightening,  held  out  her  arms. 
Then,  having  lifted  the  child  to  her  lap  and 
kissed  her,  her  face  grew  wan  again.  "  There 
was  no  fleece  for  Jason,  little  Mab;  there  is 
no  Land  of  Colchis,  never  believe  it.  And 
those  seeking,  like  Willy  and  me,  are  like  to 
wander  until  youth  and  hope  and  oppor- 
tunity are  gone." 


82  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

She  was  crying  against  a  little  cropped 
head.  King  William  stood  irresolute,  then 
put  an  arm  around  her.  "Not  that  way, 
mummy;  don't  tell  it  that  way.'* 

But  control  had  given  way.  "And  there 
is  nothing  for  little  Jason.  He  must  go  and 
fight  with  his  bare  hands  like  any  poor 
churl's  child  —  oh,  Willy,  Willy,  my  little 
son—" 

Alexina,  in  her  lap,  sat  very  still;  King 
William  was  staring  hard  into  space. 

Charlotte  went  on.  J<  We  are  going  away, 
little  Mab,  Willy  and  his  father  and  I ;  going 
away  for  good.  Everything  that  ever  was 
ours,  this  cottage  and  all,  is  gone.  We  are 
going  to  a  place  in  the  South  called  Aden, 
where  there  are  a  few  acres  that  still  are  ours 
only  because  they  would  not  sell." 

A  moment  they  all  were  still.  Then  the 
little  breast  of  Alexina  began  to  heave.  The 


PART   ONE  83 

Leroys  had  never  seen  her  this  way.  Sally 
Ann  had,  many  times,  and  Nelly  once  or 
twice.  She  threw  herself  upon  Charlotte. 
"I  want  to  go,  too;  I  want  to  go;  I  hate  it  — 
there,"  with  a  motion  of  self  toward  the  big, 
white  house  visible  through  the  window. 
"  I  hate  it,  and  I  want  to  go  too." 

They  were  all  crying  now.  Suddenly 
King  William  stood  forth  in  front  of  the 
child.  "When  we  get  rich,  I'll  come  for 
you,"  he  said. 

The  practical  Alexina  looked  through  the 
arrested  tears  as  she  sat  up.  "But  if  you 
don't  get  rich?"  she  questioned. 

Charlotte  laughed.  She  was  half  child 
herself.  The  laugh  died.  The  other  half 
was  woman.  "Then  he  won't  come;  if  he 
is  the  son  of  his  father,  he  won't  come." 


PART  TWO 

"  Nor  knowest  thou  what  argument 
Thy  life  to  thy  neighbour's  creed  has  lent. 
All  are  needed  by  each  one; 
Nothing  is  fair  or  good  alone." 

EMERSON 


CHAPTER   ONE 

Alexina  Blair,  at  twenty,  returned  from 
school  to  her  uncle's  home  with  but  small 
emotion,  as,  at  fourteen,  she  had  left  with 
little  regret,  yet  the  shady  streets,  the  open 
front  doors,  the  welcomes  called  from  up- 
stairs windows  as  she  passed  —  evidences 
that  she  was  back  among  her  own  people 
in  the  South  —  all  at  once  made  her  glad  to 
be  here. 

How  could  she  have  felt  emotion  over  a 
mere  return  to  Uncle  Austen's  house?  She 
might  have  felt  enthusiasm  over  Nelly,  but 
Nelly  was  married  to  the  gardener  at  her  old 
asylum  and  a  Katy  had  taken  her  place. 


88  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

The  house  was  the  same.  If  only  its  stone 
f a£ade  might  be  allowed  to  mellow,  to  grey 
a  little!  But,  newly  cleaned,  it  stood  coldly 
immaculate  in  its  yard  of  shaven  lawn  set 
about  with  clipped  shrubberies.  As  for  her 
uncle,  Alexina  found  herself  applying  the 
same  adjectives  to  him,  shaven,  immaculate, 
cold. 

She  wondered  what  he  thought  of  her,  but 
Uncle  Austen  never  made  personal  remarks. 

Aunt  Harriet,  on  joining  her  niece  in  the 
East  early  in  the  summer,  had  looked  at  her 
consideringly.  She  seemed  pleased. 

"Why,"  she  said,  "Alexina,  you  are  a 
Tennyson  young  person,  tall  and  most  di- 
vinely— you  are  a  little  more  intense  in 
your  coloring  than  is  usual  with  a  Blair. 
I'm  glad." 

The  somewhat  doubtful  smile  on  the 
girl's  face  deepened  as  if  a  sudden  radiance 


PART   TWO  89 

leaped  into  it.  She  seized  her  aunt's  hand. 
"Oh,"  she  said,  "you're  very  nice,  Aunt 
Harriet." 

Harriet  laughed,  rather  pleased  than  not, 
but  she  still  was  studying  the  girl.  "She 
is  impulsive  and  she  doesn't  look  set," 
the  aunt  was  telling  herself  -  -  was  it  grate- 
fully? "perhaps  she  is  less  Blair  than  I 
thought." 

Austen  Blair  too,  in  fact,  now  viewed  his 
niece  with  complacency  —  she  fulfilled  the 
Blair  requirements  —  but  he  talked  of  other 
things. 

"  It  is  the  intention  of  your  aunt  and  my- 
self," he  told  her  promptly,  "to  introduce 
you  at  once  to  what  will  be  your  social 
world,  for  it  is  well  for  everyone  to  have 
local  attachment." 

As  the  matter  progressed  it  appeared  that 
social  introduction,  as  Uncle  Austen  under- 


90  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

stood  it,  was  largely  a  matter  of  expenditure. 
In  all  investment  it  is  the  expected  thing  to 
place  where  there  is  likeliest  return.  There- 
fore he  scanned  the  invitation  list  earnestly. 

"She  can  afford  to  do  the  thing  as  it 
should  be  done,"  he  remarked  to  Harriet. 

"She?  But  Austen—"  Harriet  hesi- 
tated. "I  supposed  it  was  ours,  this  affair; 
it  seems  the  least  — 

Austen  looked  at  her.  At  first  he  did  not 
comprehend,  then  he  replied  with  some  as- 
perity. "  I  have  so  far  kept  sentiment  and 
business  apart  in  managing  Alexina's  af- 
fairs." 

Harriet  was  silenced.  It  was  becoming 
less  and  less  wise  to  oppose  Austen.  He 
had  his  own  ideas  about  the  matter.  *  The 
thing  is  to  be  done  handsomely,"  he  set 
forth,  "but,"  as  qualification,  "judiciously." 

Therefore  he  stopped  an  acquaintance  on 


PART  TWO  91 

the  street  a  day  or  two  before  the  affair. 
"Are  we  to  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you 
on  Tuesday?"  he  asked,  even  a  little  osten- 
tatiously, for  the  young  man  had  neglected 
to  accept  or  decline. 

Austen  reported  the  result  to  Harriet. 
"For  there  is  no  use  ordering  a  supper  for 
five  hundred  if  but  four  hundred  and  ninety- 
nine  are  coming,"  he  told  her. 

"No?  "said  Harriet. 

"Exactly,"  said  her  brother. 

Alexina,  present  at  the  conversation, 
looked  from  the  one  to  the  other.  Uncle 
Austen  was  Uncle  Austen;  there  was  a 
slight  lift  of  the  girlish  shoulders  as  she  ad- 
mitted this.  But  Aunt  Harriet  — 

For  Harriet  had  changed.  She  had  been 
changing  these  past  two  summers.  She 
was  absent,  forgetful,  absorbed,  even  irri- 
table. Aunt  Harriet!  And  recalled,  she 


92  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

would  color  and  Jook  about  in  startled 
fashion. 

Alexina  and  Harriet  had  been  always  on 
terms  friendly  and  pleasant,  but  scarcely  to 
be  called  intimate;  terms  that,  after  a  cor- 
dial good-night,  closed  the  door  between  their 
rooms,  and  while  the  girl  had  been  conscious 
of  a  fondness  for  her  serene  and  capable 
aunt,  there  were  times  too,  when,  met  by 
that  same  serenity,  she  had  felt  she  must 
rebel,  and  in  secret  had  thrown  her  young 
arms  out  in  impotent,  passionate  protest. 

But  now  Aunt  Harriet  forgot  and  neglect- 
ed and  grew  cross  like  any  one,  and  the  sen- 
tentious utterances  of  Uncle  Austen  irritated 
her.  Alexina,  going  into  her  room  one  day, 
found  her  with  her  head  bowed  on  the  desk. 
Was  she  crying  ?  The  girl  slipped  out. 

Was  Aunt  Harriet  unhappy  ?  The  heart 
of  Alexina  warmed  to  her. 


PART  TWO  93 

The  evening  of  Alexina's  return  home 
Harriet  had  come  to  her  door.  To  twenty 
years  thirty-eight  seems  pitiably  far  along 
in  life,  yet  Harriet  called  up  no  such  feeling 
in  Alexina.  No  passion  of  living  writ  itself 
on  Galatea's  cheek  while  she  was  in  marble, 
and  Alexina,  opening  the  door  to  the  tap, 
thought  her  aunt  beautiful. 

"If  there  are  callers  to-night,"  Harriet 
said,  "I  want  you  to  come  down.  My 
friends  are  not  too  elderly,"  she  smiled  in 
the  old,  good-humoured  way,  "  to  be  nice  to 
you  this  winter." 

So  later  Alexina  went  down  to  the  library, 
a  room  long  unfurnished,  now  the  only 
really  cheerful  room  in  the  house.  Was  it 
because  Harriet  had  furnished  it  ? 

The  girl  always  had  realized  in  an  in- 
definite way  that  Harriet  was  a  personage; 
later,  in  their  summers  away  together,  she 


94  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

discovered  that  men  liked  her  handsome 
aunt. 

In  the  library  she  found  a  group  who, 
from  the  conversation,  seemed  to  be  accus- 
tomed to  dropping  in  thus  in  casual  fashion. 
They  were  men  of  capacity  and  presence, 
one  felt  that,  even  in  the  case  of  that  long 
avowed  person  of  fashion,  Mr.  Harriot 
Bland,  who  was  getting  dangerously  near  to 
that  time  of  life  when  he  would  be  designat- 
ed an  old  beau.  He  was  a  personage,  too, 
of  his  type.  Alexina  shook  hands  with  him 
gaily;  she  had  been  used  to  his  coming 
since  she  first  came  to  live  with  Aunt  Har- 
riet and  Uncle  Austen.  Harriet  introduced 
the  others.  The  girl's  spirits  rose ;  she  felt 
it  was  nice  that  she  should  be  knowing 
them. 

And  they?  What  does  middle-age  feel, 
looking  upon  youth,  eager-eyed,  buoyant, 


PART  TWO  95 

flushed  with  the  first  glow  from  that  un- 
known about  to  dawn  ? 

Oh,  it  was  a  charming  evening.  The  girl 
showed  she  thought  it  so  and  smiled,  and 
the  men  smiled  too,  as  they  joined  Harriet 
in  making  her  the  young  centre.  Perhaps 
there  was  a  tender  something  in  the  smiles. 
Was  it  for  their  own  gone  youth  ? 

One,  a  Major  Rathbone,  stayed  after  the 
others  left.  He  sat  building  little  breast- 
works on  the  centre-table  out  of  matches 
taken  from  the  bronze  stand  by  the  lamp, 
and  as  he  talked  he  looked  over  every  now 
and  then  at  Harriet  on  the  other  side. 

In  the  soberer  reaction  following  the 
breaking  up  of  the  group,  Alexina,  too, 
found  time  to  look  at  Harriet.  It  was  an 
Aunt  Harriet  that  she  had  never  seen  before. 
The  color  was  richly  dyeing  this  Harriet's 
cheeks,  and  the  jewel  pendant  at  her  throat 


96  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

rose  and  trembled  and  fell,  and  her  white 
lids  fell,  too,  though  she  had  laughed  when 
her  eyes  met  laughter  and  something  else  in 
the  brown  eyes  of  the  Major  fixed  on  her. 

It  was  of  Mr.  Marriot  Bland  the  Major 
was  speaking,  his  smooth,  brown  hand  ca- 
ressing his  clean-shaven  chin. 

"So  cruelly  confident  are  you  cold  Di- 
anas," he  was  saying.  "  Now,  even  a  Penel- 
ope must  hold  out  the  lure  of  her  web  to  an 
old  suitor,  but  you  Dianas  - 

Alexma  laughed.  She  had  jumped 
promptly  into  a  liking  for  this  lean,  brown 
man  with  the  keen,  humorous  eyes  and  the 
deliberate  yet  quick  movements,  and  now 
absorbed  in  her  thoughts,  was  unconscious 
of  her  steadfast  gaze  fixed  on  him,  until  he 
suddenly  brought  his  eyes  to  bear  on  hers 
with  humorous  inquiry. 

"Well?  "he  inquired. 


PART   TWO  97 

Now  Alexina,  being  fair,  showed  blushes 
most  embarrassingly,  but  she  could  laugh 
too. 

"What's  the  conclusion?"  he  demanded; 
"  or  would  it  be  wiser  not  to  press  inquiry  ?  " 

Alexina  laughed  again.  She  knew  she 
liked  this  Major. 

"  I  was  wondering,"  she  confessed.  "  You 
are  so  different  from  what  I  expected.  I 
heard  Aunt  Harriet  and  Uncle  Austen  dis- 
cussing one  of  your  editorials,  so  I  read  it. 
I  thought  you  would  be  different  —  fiercer 
maybe,  and  —  er  —  more  aggressive." 

Alexina  began  to  blush  again,  for  the 
Major  was  so  edified  at  something  that  his 
enjoyment  was  suspicious. 

"But  no  man  is  expected  to  live  down  to 
his  editorials,  Miss  Alexina;  I  write  'em  for 
a  living." 

He  stroked  his  chin  as  he  regarded  her, 


98  THE   HOUSE    OF   FULFILMENT 

but  there  was  laughter  too  out  of  the  tail  of 
his  eye  across  at  Aunt  Harriet,  who  was 
laughing  also,  though  she  looked  teased. 

Later  Alexina  learned  more  about  this 
Major  Rathbone.  It  was  Emily  Carring- 
ford  who  told  her.  Emily  came  over 
promptly  the  day  after  Alexina's  return  and, 
admitted  by  Katy,  ran  up  as  of  old. 

Alexina,  hearing  her  name  called,  lurned 
from  a  melee  of  unpacking  as  the  other 
reached  the  open  doorway. 

"Oh,  Emily,"  she  said,  and  stood  and 
gazed. 

Emily  stood,  too,  archly,  and,  meeting 
Alexina's  look,  laughed.  Her  blush  was  an 
acknowledgment;  she  did  not  even  pretend 
to  misunderstand  Alexina's  meaning. 

"  Aunt  Harriet  told  me  how  -  -  how  lovely 
you  were,  and  Uncle  Austen  told  me  last 
night  that  my  friend,  Miss  Emily,  he  con- 


PART  TWO  99 

sidered  an  *  unusually  good-looking  woman 
-a  handsome  woman,  in  fact."  The 
niece  had  her  uncle's  every  conciseness  of 
tone  as  she  quoted.  "But  somehow  with  it 
all,  I  wasn't  prepared  - 

She  came  forward  with  hands  out. 

Emily  forgot  to  take  the  hands.  "  Did  he 
say  that,  really,  Alexina?" 

"Yes;  why  shouldn't  he?  Oh,  Emily, 
it  must  be  joy,  or  does  it  frighten  you  to 
know  you're  so  beautiful  ?  " 

She  was  letting  her  fingers  touch,  almost 
with  awe,  the  curve  of  the  other's  cheek. 

Emily  laughed,  but  the  crimson  on  the 
cheek  deepened. 

"And  your  voice?"  demanded  Alexina. 
"  I  want  to  hear  you  sing.  Did  you  get  the 
place  in  the  choir  you  wrote  me  about?" 

"Miss  Harriet  got  it  for  me;  it  was  she 
who  suggested  it  —  that  is,  she  got  Mr. 


100  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

Blair  to  get  it  for  me.  It's  at  your  church, 
you  know." 

"  Uncle  Austen  ?     No.     Did  he,  really  ?  " 

But  the  surprise  in  Alexina's  voice  was 
unfair  to  her  uncle.  To  help  people  to  the 
helping  of  themselves  was  part  of  his  creed. 
He  looked  upon  it  as  a  furthering  of  the  gen- 
eral social  economy,  as  indeed  he  had  point- 
ed out  more  than  once  to  those  he  was  thus 
assisting. 

But  Alexina  had  many  things  to  ask. 
She  pushed  Emily  into  a  chair. 

"Is  it  pleasant  —  the  choir?"  she  began. 

"Pleasant?  Well,"  Emily  looked  away 
and  coloured,  "I  like  the  money;  I've  never 
been  able  to  have  any  clothes  before.  There 
was  a  scene  at  home  about  it  —  my  singing, 
I  mean,  in  any  but  my  own  church,  and  for 
money.  It  was  grandfather,  of  course;  it's 
always  been  grandfather.  He  says  it's 


PART  TWO  101 

spiritual  prostitution,  whatever  he  means 
by  that,  taking  money  for  praising  the  Lord 
in  an  alien  faith."  She  laughed  in  an 
off-hand  way.  "No,  I'll  be  honest,  I'd 
have  to  be  sooner  or  later  with  you,  any- 
how, I  hate  it  —  not  the  work  and  rehear- 
sals so  much,  but  the  being  patronized. 
When  some  of  those  women  stop  me,  with 
the  air  of  doing  the  gracious  thing,  to  tell 
me  they  have  enjoyed  my  singing,  oh,  I 
could  -  Again  she  laughed,  but  her 
cheeks  were  blazing.  Then  she  leaned  over 
and  fingered  some  of  the  girlish  fineries 
strewing  the  bed.  "I  hate  it  at  home, 
too,  when  it  comes  to  being  honest  about 
things  —  six  of  us,  with  grandfather  and 
Aunt  Carrie  making  eight,  in  that  little 
house!" 

Later,  Alexina  chanced  to  refer  to  Major 
Rathbone.     She  spoke  enthusiastically,  for 


102  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

she  either  liked  people  or  she  did  not  like 
them.  "Hadn't  you  heard  about  him?" 
asked  Emily  in  surprise.  "He  met  Miss 
Harriet  two  years  ago,  and  he's  been  coming 
ever  since.  It's  funny,  too,  that  he  should. 
He's  the  Major  Rathbone,  you  know  - 

But  Alexina  looked  unenlightened. 

"Why,"  said  Emily,  "the  Major  Rath- 
bone  who  was  the  Confederate  guerrilla  - 
the  one  who  captured  and  burned  a  train- 
load  of  stuff  your  grandfather  and  Mr.  Aus- 
ten had  contracted  to  deliver  for  the  govern- 
ment. I've  heard  people  tell  about  it  a  doz- 
en different  ways  since  he's  been  coming  to 
see  Miss  Harriet.  Anyway,  however  it  was, 
the  government  at  the  time  put  a  price  on 
his  head  and  your  grandfather  and  Mr. 
Austen  doubled  it.  And  now  they  say  he's 
in  love  with  Miss  Harriet!" 

In  love!     With  Aunt  Harriet!     Alexina 


PART   TWO  103 

grew  hot.  Aunt  Harriet!  She  felt  strange 
and  queer.  But  Emily  was  saying  more. 
"Mr.  Blair  and  Major  Rathbone  aren't 
friends  even  yet;  I  was  here  to  supper  with 
Miss  Harriet  one  evening  last  winter,  and 
Mr.  Blair  was  furious  over  an  editorial  by 
Major  Rathbone  in  the  paper  that  day  about 
some  political  appointments  from  Washing- 
ton. Mr.  Blair  had  had  something  to  do 
with  them,  had  been  consulted  about  them 
from  Washington,  it  seems.  Major  Rath- 
bone's  a  Catholic,  too." 

It  rushed  upon  Alexina  that  she  had 
spoken  to  the  Major  of  a  family  discussion 
over  his  editorials. 

Emily  stayed  until  dusk.  As  Alexina 
went  down  to  the  door  with  her,  they  met 
Uncle  Austen  just  coming  in.  He  stopped, 
shook  hands,  and  asked  how  matters  were 
in  the  choir. 


104  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

As  Emily  ran  down  the  steps  he  addressed 
himself  to  his  niece.  "A  praiseworthy 
young  girl  to  have  gone  so  practically  to 
work."  Then  as  Emily  at  the  gate  looked 
back,  nodding  archly,  he  repeated  it.  "A 
praiseworthy  young  girl,  praiseworthy  and 
sensible,"  his  gaze  following  her,  "  as  well  as 
handsome." 

He  went  in,  but  Alexina  lingered  on  the 
broad  stone  steps.  It  was  October  and  the 
twilight  was  purple  and  hazy.  Chrysan- 
themums bloomed  against  the  background 
of  the  shrubbery;  the  maples  along  the 
street  were  drifting  leaves  upon  the  side- 
walk; the  sycamores  stood  with  their  shed 
foliage  like  a  cast  garment  about  their 
feet,  raising  giant  white  limbs  naked  to 
heaven. 

There  were  lights  in  the  wide  brick  cot- 
tage. Strangers  lived  there  now.  A  swing- 


PART   TWO  105 

ing  sign  above  the  gate  set  forth  that  a  Doc- 
tor Ransome  dwelt  therein. 

The  eddying  fall  of  leaves  is  depressing. 
Autumn  anyhow  is  a  melancholy  time.  Alex- 
ina,  going  in,  closed  the  door. 


CHAPTER  TWO 

The  Blair  reception  to  introduce  their  niece 
may  have  been  to  others  the  usual  matter 
of  lights  and  flowers  and  music,  but  to 
the  niece  it  was  different,  for  it  was  her 
affair. 

She  and  her  aunt  went  down  together. 
The  stairway  was  broad,  and  to-night  its 
banister  trailed  roses. 

Alexina  was  radiant.  She  even  marched 
up  and  kissed  her  uncle.  Things  felt  actu- 
ally festive. 

All  the  little  social  world  was  there  that 
evening.  Alexina  recalled  many  of  the  girls 
and  the  older  women ;  of  the  older  men  she 


PART  TWO  107 

knew  a  few,  but  of  the  younger  only  one 
could  she  remember  as  knowing. 

He  was  a  rosy-cheeked  youth  with  vigor- 
ous, curling  yellow  hair,  and  he  came  up  to 
her  with  a  hearty  swinging  of  the  body,  smil- 
ing in  a  friendly  and  expectant  way,  show- 
ing nice,  square  teeth,  boyishly  far  apart. 
She  knew  him  at  once;  he  had  gone  to 
dancing  school  when  she  did,  and  she  was 
glad  to  see  him. 

"  Why,  Georgy,"  she  said,  and  held  out  a 
hand,  just  as  it  was  borne  in  upon  her  that 
Georgy  wore  a  young  down  on  his  lip  and 
was  a  man. 

"Oh,"  she  said,  blushing,  "I  hope  you 
don't  mind?" 

He  was  blushing,  too,  but  the  smile  that 
showed  his  nice  spaced  teeth  was  honest. 

"No,"  he  said;  "I  don't  mind." 

Which  Alexina  felt  was  good  of  him  and 


108  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

so  she  smiled  back  and  chatted  and  tried  to 
make  it  up.  And  Georgy  lingered  and  con- 
tinued to  linger  and  to  blush  beneath  his  al- 
ready ruddy  skin  until  Harriet,  turning, 
sent  him  away,  for  Harriet  was  a  woman  of 
the  world  and  Georgy  was  the  rich  and  only 
child  of  the  richest  mamma  present,  and  the 
other  mammas  were  watching. 

Alexina's  eyes  followed  him  as  he  went, 
then  wandered  across  the  long  room  to  Em- 
ily. She  had  expected  to  feel  a  sense  of  re- 
sponsibility about  Emily,  but  Uncle  Austen, 
after  a  long  and  precise  survey  of  her  from 
across  the  room,  put  his  eye-glasses  into 
their  case  and  went  to  her.  His  prim  air  of 
unbending  for  the  festive  occasion  was  al- 
most comical  as  he  brought  up  youths  to 
make  them  known.  This  done  he  fell  back 
to  his  general  duties  as  host. 

But  Alexina,  watching  Emily,  felt  dissat- 


PART  TWO  109 

isfaction  with  her,  her  archness  was  over- 
done, her  laughter  was  anxious. 

Why  should  Emily  stoop  to  strive  so? 
With  her  milk-white  skin  and  chestnut  hair, 
with  her  red  lips  and  starry  eyes  there 
should  have  belonged  to  her  a  pride  and  a 
young  dignity.  Alexina,  youthfully  stern, 
turned  away. 

It  brought  her  back  to  the  amusing  things 
of  earth,  however,  that  Uncle  Austen  should 
take  Emily  home  when  it  was  over.  Would 
Emily  be  arch  with  Uncle  Austen?  Pic- 
ture it! 

Several  of  the  older  men  lingered  after  the 
other  guests  were  gone,  and  they,  with  Har- 
riet and  Alexina,  had  coffee  in  the  library. 
The  orderliness  of  the  room,  compared  with 
the  dishevelled  appearance  elsewhere  now 
the  occasion  was  over,  seemed  cheerful,  and 
these  men  friends  of  Aunt  Harriet  were  in- 


110  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

teresting.  The  talk  was  personal,  as  among 
intimates.  The  local  morning  paper,  op- 
posed to  Major  Rathbone's  own,  it  seemed, 
had  taxed  the  Major  with  aspiring  to  be  the 
next  nominee  of  his  party  for  Congress. 
And  this  was  proving  occasion  for  much 
banter  at  his  expense  by  the  other  men,  for 
the  truth  was  the  Major  was  being  consid- 
ered as  a  possibility,  but  a  possibility  tem- 
pered, for  one  thing,  by  the  fact  that  his 
guerrilla  past  shed  a  somewhat  lurid  light 
upon  his  exemplary  present. 

"But  why  want  to  keep  it  secret  as  if  it 
were  something  dark  and  plotting?"  in- 
sisted Harriet  Blair.  "  Why  not  come  right 
out  and  admit  your  willingness  if  your  party 
wants  you?" 

The  men  laughed  in  varying  degrees  of 
delight  at  this  feminine  perspicacity.  The 
Major  regarded  her  with  somewhat  comical 


PART  TWO  111 

humour,  looking  a  little  shamefaced,  though 
he  was  laughing  too.  "For  the  fear  my 
party  can't  afford  to  have  me,"  he  answered. 
"It  takes  money.  They  are  casting  about 
for  a  richer  available  man  first,  and,  that 
failing,  why- 
Here  Austen  Blair  came  in,  bringing  a 
breath  of  the  November  chill.  Or  was  it  his 
own  personality  that  brought  the  chill, 
Alexina  wondered.  For,  to  do  him  justice, 
there  was  a  distinction,  a  fine  coldness,  a 
bearing  about  him  which  distinguished  him 
in  any  company. 

Promptly  on  his  coming  the  group  broke 
up.  The  others  passed  into  the  hall  to  hunt 
overcoats,  but  the  Major  paused  to  address 
Harriet,  who  had  risen  and  was  looking  at 
him  as  he  spoke.  There  was  colour  in  her 
face,  and  light. 

"Friday  evening,  then,"  he  was  saying, 


112  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

"you  will  go  with  me  to  hear  Benton  lec- 
ture?" 

Austen,  who  had  taken  a  cup  of  coffee 
from  Alexina,  looked  up  sharply.  He  put 
the  cup  down. 

Harriet  smiled  acquiescence.  "Friday 
evening,"  she  agreed. 

Later,  in  the  hall,  as  the  outer  door  shut 
behind  the  group  of  departing  men,  Austen 
turned  on  his  sister,  his  nostrils  tense  with 
dilation. 

"Do  you  realize  what  you  are  doing ?"  he 
asked.  "  Have  you  utterly  lost  sight  of  how 
this  man  was  regarded  by  your  father,  if  you 
prefer  to  put  consideration  for  me  out  of  the 
matter?" 

Harriet  continued  to  unfasten  her  long 
glove.  The  color  was  gone  from  her  face, 
and  the  light,  but  otherwise  she  stood  out- 
wardly serene. 


PART   TWO  113 

"The  fight  was  fair,"  she  said  calmly, 
"and  also  mutual." 

Her  brother  regarded  her  fixedly,  then  he 
spoke.  "  Though  what  there  is  to  be  gained 
in  thus  setting  yourself  in  opposition  to  my 
repeatedly  expressed  wishes  I  do  not" — 
all  at  once  two  steely  points  seemed  to  leap 
into  the  blue  intensity  of  his  gaze  -  "  unless 
-  in  Heaven's  name,  Harriet,  is  it  possible 
that  you  mean  to — " 

"  Mean  to  what  ?  "  she  repeated.     Harriet * 
was  meeting  his  eyes  with  a  look  as  unflinch- 
ing as  his.     She  seemed  unconsciously  to 
have  drawn  herself  to  her  full,  superb  height, 
but  she  had  grown  white  as  her  gown* 

He  suddenly  resumed  his  usual  manner. 
"Take  the  child  on  to  bed,"  he  said, 
glancing  at  Alexina  standing  startled, 
looking  from  one  to  the  other.  "  This  is  no 
time  to  have  the  matter  out." 


114  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

"  I  agree  with  you  quite,"  said  his  sister, 
and  held  out  a  hand  to  the  girl.  Alexina 
took  it  quickly,  impulsively,  and  held  to 
it  as  they  went  up  the  garlanded  stairway, 
which  suddenly  looked  tawdry  and  garish. 
In  the  hall  above  the  girl  lifted  Harriet's 
hand  and  put  her  cheek  against  it,  then  al- 
most ran  in  at  her  own  door. 


CHAPTER   THREE 

The  Blairs  met  about  the  breakfast  table 
next  morning  at  the  usual  time;  a  matter  of 
four  hours  for  sleep  instead  of  eight  would 
have  been  insufficient  excuse  to  Austen  for 
further  upsetting  of  routine;  and  there  was 
none  of  the  chit-chat  that  would  seem  nat- 
ural on  a  morning  following  the  giving  of  a 
large  social  affair. 

Aunt  Harriet  was  dumb  and  Uncle  Austen 
tense,  or  so  it  seemed  to  the  third  and  young- 
est Blair  about  the  board.  She  had  been 
conscious  of  sharp  interchange  checked  as 
she  entered.  Uncle  Austen  even  forgot  to 
look  up  at  her  interrogatively  as  she  came  in, 
though  she  was  a  moment  late. 


116  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

Was  the  trouble  still  about  the  Major? 
Was  Aunt  Harriet  determined  to  go  with 
him  Friday  evening  ? 

Whatever  the  cause,  Friday  came,  with 
the  strained  relations  between  sister  and 
brother  unrelieved. 

The  town  was  in  the  midst  of  its  social 
season,  the  Blair  reception  being  one  of  sev- 
eral crowding  each  other.  On  this  Friday 
Harriet  and  Alexina  were  to  attend  an  after- 
noon affair,  and  later  Alexina  was  to  go  to 
an  evening  occasion  with  her  uncle,  who  had 
consented  icily,  as  though  to  emphasize  the 
fact  that  it  was  Harriet's  engagement  which 
made  it  necessary  for  him  to  take  the  girl. 

Alexina,  coming  down  a  little  before  five, 
found  Harriet  standing  in  the  parlor,  ready, 
gloves  on  and  wrap  on  a  chair.  To  be 
young  is  to  be  ardent.  Not  all  youthful 
things  are  young.  Alexina  was  young. 


PART  TWO  117 

"You  are  beautiful,  Aunt  Harriet,"  she 
declared. 

But  it  was  as  if  Harriet  did  not  hear.  Was 
it  premonition,  that  strained  absorption? 

"A  moment,  Alexina,"  she  was  saying. 
"Listen,  was  that  the  bell ?" 

"John,  probably,"  said  Alexina,  "to  let 
us  know  the  carriage  is  waiting." 

But  it  was  Major  Rathbone  who  came  in 
upon  them  in  his  quick  fashion  a  moment 
later.  His  overcoat  was  a  cape  affair  which 
somehow  seemed  to  suit  his  personality,  and 
ever  after  Alexina  could  see  him  throwing 
the  cavalier-like  drapery  back  with  impa- 
tient gesture. 

"  You  are  not  gone  then,  Harriet,"  he  said ; 
"I  am  glad  for  that." 

Quickly  as  the  words  were  spoken,  the 
Harriet  on  his  lips  was  not  lost  upon  Alex- 
ina. She  turned  to  go,  quite  hot  and  with 


118  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

impulsive  haste,  but  the  Major,  putting  out 
a  hand,  detained  her. 

"No,  Miss  Alexina;  I'd  really  rather  you 
would  stay  if  you  will  be  so  kind,"  he  said, 
then  turned  to  the  older  woman.  "I  have 
just  had  some  words  with  your  brother  on 
the  club-house  steps  and  I  knocked  him 
down.  I  came  on  straight  here,  preferring 
you  should  hear  my  regret  from  myself.  I 
lost  my  temper." 

He  was  facing  Harriet,  who  had  taken  a 
step  towards  him  at  his  entrance,  then  had 
stopped.  Looking  at  her  he  went  on 
rapidly : 

"  There  is  this  I  want  to  say.  Yesterday 
I  thought  never  to  have  the  right  to  say  it 
since  I  was  too  poor  to  ask  you  to  listen. 
To-night  I  came  here  to  say  that  I  love  you 
from  my  soul,  and  near  you  or  away  from 
you,  alive  or  dead,  will  go  on  loving  you  and 


PART  TWO  119 

wanting  you.  Had  you  been  poor  I  would 
have  fought  like  any  man  to  make  you  care ; 
as  it  is  I  knocked  your  brother  down  for  say- 
ing I  was  trying  to  do  it  because  you  are 
rich,  to  further  my  political  ambition.  I 
knocked  him  down  for  that,  and  for  some 
other,  older  reasons.  There  is  nothing 
more  to  say;  no,  in  the  divine  bigness  of 
your  nature  don't  think  you  have  to  speak. 
I  cannot  come  here  any  more,  even  if  you 
would  permit  me,  after  what  has  happened, 
and  I  can't  expect  you  to  go  to-night  of 
course.  But  if  ever  I  can  serve  you  I  am 
yours,  soul  and  body,  and  will  be  while  there 
is  life  in  me.  That's  all,  at  last.  What," 
as  he  turned,  "crying,  Miss  Alexina?  For 
me  ?  Or  for  him  ?  I  assure  you  there  was 
little  hurt  but  his  arrogance.  Dare  I  ask 
you  to  shake  hands?" 

And  he  was  gone  in  his  abruptly  quick 


120  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

fashion  and  the  latch  of  the  outer  door  was 
heard  clicking  behind  him. 

It  aroused  Harriet  and  she  came  to  her- 
self. She  was  trembling,  but  on  her  face 
was  a  look  of  one  who  has  entered  Heaven. 
Then  it  seemed  to  come  to  her  that  he  was 
gone. 

"  I  must  —  oh,  stop  him,  Alexina.  He 
must  know  - 

The  girl  ran  into  the  hall,  but  the  outer 
door  was  heavy,  and  in  her  haste  she  was 
awkward  getting  it  open.  As  it  gave  finally 
the  rush  of  wind  drove  her  inward.  The 
steady  rainfall  of  the  day,  freezing  as  it 
touched  the  ground,  had  changed  to  finely 
driven  sleet.  The  steps  glared  with  ice. 
But  already  the  Major  was  at  the  gate,  and 
through  the  dusk  she  could  see  his  umbrella 
lowered  against  the  wind  as  he  turned  and 
started  up  the  street.  She  called  after  him 


PART  TWO  121 

impulsively,  beseechingly,  but  realized  the 
futility  of  it  through  the  fierce  rush  of  wind 
and  sleet.  John  was  just  driving  out  the 
carriage-way  from  the  stable.  Indetermin- 
ate, she  closed  the  door  and  turned  back  to 
the  parlour. 

Harriet  had  sunk  upon  a  chair,  and  in  her 
eyes,  looking  far  off,  was  a  light,  a  smile,  or 
was  it  tears  ? 

She  sprang  up  and  turned,  her  face  one 
heavenly  blush,  as  Alexina  entered.  Had 
she  thought  it  would  be  he  ? 

"  Gone  ?  Oh,  Alexina,  I  must  —  I  have 
to  tell  him.  Ring  the  bell.  John  must  go  for 
him.  After  what  has  happened  I  cannot 
stand  it  that  the  knowledge  should  all  be 
mine." 

But  she  was  already  pulling  the  bell-cord 
herself,  then  turned  to  Alexina  blushing  and 
radiant. 


122  THE   HOUSE   OF  FULFILMENT 

"I  am  thirty-eight  years  old,  Alexina;  I 
am  not  even  young,  and  yet  he  cares  for  me." 

The  bell  had  rung;  both  had  heard  the 
far-off  sound  of  it,  but  no  one  answered, 
maid  or  man-servant. 

She  rang  again.  "I  had  no  time,  the 
words  would  not  come,  I  tried  to  tell  him," 
she  said  pleadingly  to  Alexina,  as  if  the  girl 
were  arraigning  her,  then  suddenly  dropped 
into  the  chair  by  the  bell-cord,  and  with  her 
face  in  her  hands  against  its  back  went  into 
violent  weeping. 

Alexina  stood  hesitant.  There  are  times 
for  silence.  She  would  go  and  find  Katy. 

But  she  met  her  hurrying  from  the  kitchen 
towards  the  parlour,  the  shawl  over  her 
head  full  of  sleet  and  wet.  She  was  pant- 
ing and  her  eyes  were  large.  Alexina  was 
vaguely  conscious  of  the  cook,  breathing 
excitement,  somewhere  back  in  the  length 


PART   TWO  1& 

of  the  hall,  and  behind  her  some  trades- 
boy,  his  basket  on  his  arm,  his  mouth 
gaping. 

"It's  Major  Rathbone,"  said  Katy,  pant- 
ing; "John  ran  into  him  coming  out  the 
carriage  gate.  The  horses  slipped  and  he 
had  his  umbrella  down  and  didn't  see.  I 
was  coming  from  the  grocery." 

"Oh,"  said  Alexina;  "Katy,  oh—" 

Harriet  had  heard  and  was  already  in 
the  hall  and  struggling  with  the  outer 
door.  "I  can't  —  it  won't  —  oh,  Alexina, 
help  me!" 

Katy  had  reached  the  door  too,  and  put 
her  hand  on  the  knob.  "They've  already 
started  to  the  infirmary  with  him,  Miss  Har- 
riet, John  and  that  young  doctor  across  the 
street,  before  I  came  in.  He  told  them  to 
take  him  there  himself.  He  was  hah*  up, 
holding  to  the  fence,  before  John  was  off  the 


124  THE   HOUSE   OF  FULFILMENT 

box.  *Stop  the  doctor  there  getting  in  his 
buggy,'  he  said  to  John,  *  and  get  me  around 
to  the  infirmary." 

"And  the  doctor  —  what  did  he  say?" 
demanded  Alexina. 

"He  said  *Good  Lord,  man!'  and  he 
swore  just  awful  at  John  being  so  slow  help- 
ing get  him  in  the  carriage." 

Harriet  all  at  once  was  herself,  perfectly 
controlled. 

"  Go  get  me  my  long  cloak,  please,  Katy," 
she  said. 

"Oh,  Miss  Harriet,"  from  Katy;  "you 
ain't  thinking  of  goin'  out  —  it's  sleetin' 
awful  —  without  the  carriage!" 

But  Harriet  already  had  reached  the 
stairs  going  for  the  wrap  herself. 

Alexina  followed  her.  "  What  is  it,  Aunt 
Harriet?"  she  begged.  "Where  are  you 
going?" 


PART   TWO  125 

Harriet  answered  back  from  her  own 
doorway.  "To  the  infirmary." 

Action  is  the  one  thing  always  understood 
by  youth.  Alexina  entirely  approved.  "I'll 
go,  too,"  she  said,  and  ran  into  her  room  to 
change  her  wrap  for  a  darker  one. 

There  was  but  one  infirmary  at  the  time 
in  the  city,  and  that  a  Catholic  institution. 
They  could  walk  a  square  and  take  a  car  to 
the  door.  Alexina,  in  her  haste,  never 
thought  of  money,  but  Harriet,  as  she  came 
down,  had  her  purse. 

Neither  spoke  on  the  way ;  it  was  all  they 
could  do  to  keep  umbrellas  open  in  the 
fierce  drive  of  wind  and  sleet.  Alexina  bent 
her  head  to  catch  breath ;  the  sleet  whipped 
and  stung  her  face,  the  wind  seized  her  loose 
cape,  her  light  skirts,  bellying  them  out  be- 
hind her.  But  Harriet,  ahead,  tall,  poised, 
went  swiftly  on,  and,  in  the  light  from  the 


126  THE    HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

street  gas-post  as  they  waited  for  a  car,  her 
face  showed  no  consciousness  of  storm  or  of 
aught  about  her.  Yet  it  was  Harriet  who 
stopped  the  car,  who  made  the  change,  and 
paid  the  fares.  The  ride  into  town  was  in 
silence.  It  was  Harriet  who  rang  the  bell 
before  the  infirmary  building,  who  led  the 
way  over  the  icy  pavement,  up  the  wide 
brick  walk  through  the  grounds ;  it  was  Har- 
riet who  rang  the  bell  at  the  big  central  door, 
and  it  was  she  who  entered  first  past  the 
little  Sister  who  opened  that  door. 

Not  that  the  little  Sister  meant  to  permit 
it  —  it  was  against  rules,  she  assured  them, 
visiting  hours  were  over.  She  could  tell 
them  nothing.  The  doctors  were  with  the 
gentleman  now. 

But  she  let  them  in.  Prison  doors  must 
have  opened  to  Harriet  that  night,  she 
would  have  put  the  little  Sister  aside  if  need 


PART   TWO  127 

be  and  walked  in,  Alexina  felt  that.  Per- 
haps the  little  Sister  felt  it  too.  She  glanced 
at  Harriet  furtively,  timidly,  and,  murmur- 
ing something  about  going  to  see,  glided 
away. 

The  two  stood  in  the  hall,  Alexina  gazing 
at  the  patron  Saint  of  the  place,  in  marble  on 
his  pedestal.  After  a  time  the  little  Sister 
returned  and  told  them  the  doctor  would  see 
them  presently  and  said  something  about  the 
parlour,  but  Harriet  shook  her  head. 

Again  they  waited,  the  woman  and  the 
girl  sitting  in  chairs  against  the  painted  wall, 
facing  the  Saint  in  his  niche.  The  instincts 
of  long  ago  arose  within  Alexina,  and  un- 
consciously her  lips  moved  for  comfort  to 
herself  in  a  prayer  to  the  benign  old  Saint  be- 
fore her,  there  being  nothing  incongruous  to 
her  that  she  was  using  a  little  form  of  child's 
prayer  taught  her  by  her  Presbyterian  aunt. 


128  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

And  still  they  waited,  so  long  that  Alexina 
felt  she  could  not  stand  the  silence  longer, 
or  the  waiting.  She  looked  at  Harriet,  who 
was  gazing  before  her,  her  face  colourless, 
her  eyes  unseeing.  Alexina  began  to  wonder 
if  the  Sister  had  forgotten  they  were  there. 

But  at  last  she  came  stealing  noiselessly 
back,  and,  following  her,  a  young  man. 

Alexina  recognized  him  at  once  as  the 
young  doctor  she  had  seen  going  in  and  out 
the  cottage,  and  whose  name  she  remem- 
bered was  Ransome. 

Harriet  arose  to  meet  him.  He  was 
young  and  boyish  and  looked  unnerved. 
"The  others  will  be  down  in  a  moment - 
the  other  doctors"  -  he  told  her;  "when  I 
saw  it  was  bad  —  you  know  I'm  just  begin- 
ning —  I  turned  it  over." 

His  nice  blue  eyes  looked  quite  distressed. 

"How  bad?"  asked  Harriet  steadily. 


PART   TWO  129 

He  looked  at  her  quite  miserably,  the  boy, 
then  gathered  himself  together. 

"  May  I  ask  —  I  beg  pardon  —  may  I 
know  who  I  am  talking  to  ?"  though  true  to 
tell  he  knew  who  she  was,  living  as  he  did 
across  from  her,  but  in  his  young  embarrass- 
ment did  not  know  how  to  say  so. 

The  tall,  beautiful  woman  stood  a  moment 
before  him,  then  a  slow  color  came  up  over 
her  throat  and  face.  "  I  am  Miss  Blair  — 
Major  Rathbone  is  —  ' 

Alexina  had  come  close  to  her  side  and  her 
young  eyes  were  on  the  doctor's  appeal- 


He  understood;  doubtless  he  had  heard 
the  two  names  connected  before  ;  the  affairs 
of  the  wealthy  Miss  Blair  and  the  some- 
what famous  editor  were  likely  to  be  talked 
over  in  a  city  the  size  of  Louisville,  or,  per- 
haps, being  young,  he  merely  divined.  His 


ISO  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

distress  increased;  he  looked  quite  wretched. 
"  It's  bad  —  I'm  mighty  sorry  to  be  the  one 
to  tell  you." 

Did  she  grow  taller,  whiter?  "Are  you 
—  are  the  doctors  still  - 

"They  are  through  for  the  present  and 
coming  down  now." 

"Then  I  will  go  to  him.  Oh,  but  I 
must"  -  this  to  the  horrified  little  Sister's 
upraised  hands  of  protest  and  headshake  of 
negation. 

"It's  against  all  rules,"  ejaculated  the 
little  Sister. 

Miss  Blair  addressed  herself  to  the  young 
doctor. 

"Kindly  take  me  to  the  room,"  she  said. 

The  abashed  young  fellow  looked  from 
one  to  the  other.  But  he  started.  The  lit- 
tle Sister,  however,  hastily  interposing  her- 
self between  Miss  Blair  and  progress,  was 


PART  TWO  131 

heard  to  murmur  that  name  of  authority  — 
the  Mother. 

"  Go  and  bring  her,"  said  Harriet. 

The  Sister  departed  in  haste,  to  return 
speedily  with  the  Mother,  her  calm  face  be- 
neath its  bands  mild,  benignant,  but  inex- 
orable. 

"  But  I  am,"  returned  Harriet  to  anything 
she  could  say.  "  I  am  going  to  him." 

The  dominant  calmness  of  the  Mother 
had  met  its  equal.  Finally,  in  her  turn,  she 
retreated  behind  authority  and  mentioned 
Father  Ryan. 

"Oh,"  said  Harriet,  "go  and  bring  him." 

He  came,  heavy  of  jowl,  keen  and  humor- 
ous of  eye,  but  his  manner  disturbed, 
distraught,  as  with  one  whose  absorption  is 
elsewhere.  Suddenly  Harriet  remembered 
that  he  was  the  intimate,  the  friend  of  Major 
Rathbone. 


132  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

"  I  am  going  to  him,"  said  Harriet;  "  noth- 
ing that  you  can  say  makes  any  difference." 

The  Father  gazed  at  her  thoughtfully. 
Then  he  nodded.  "No,"  he  said;  "you 
are  right;  nothing  will." 

Just  then  the  two  other  physicians  came 
down  the  stairs. 

"A  word  with  you  first,  gentlemen, 
please,"  said  the  Father.  The  four  men 
gathered  at  the  foot  of  the  stairway. 

Watching,  an  outsider  would  have  said 
that  the  priest  and  the  young  doctor  were 
pleaders  with  the  others  for  the  cause  of 
Miss  Blair. 

Later,  the  Mother  herself  led  Harriet  up 
the  stairs  and  along  a  corridor,  the  young 
doctor  following  with  Alexina. 

"  I  think  I  —  do  you  think  I  ought  to  go 
with  her?"  Alexina  had  faltered  to  him. 

The  two  young  things  gazed  at  each  other 


PART  TWO  138 

indeterminate.  Alexina's  eyes  were  swim- 
ming, like  a  child's,  with  unshed  tears. 
Never  has  tragedy  such  epic  qualities  as  in 
youth.  Then  he  turned  and  led  the  way. 
"Yes,"  he  told  her,  "I  think  if  I  were  you  I 
would." 

Harriet  was  by  the  bed  when  they  entered, 
gazing  down  on  the  lean,  brown  face  of  the 
man,  whose  eyes  were  closed.  The  Sister 
in  charge,  sitting  on  the  other  side,  was 
speaking  in  a  low  voice.  Had  she  seen  fit  to 
tell  what  she  knew  ? 

For  Harriet  turned  as  they  entered  and 
looked  at  them.  Her  face  was  set  as  in  mar- 
ble. It  was  cold,  it  was  stern;  only,  the 
eyes  fixed  on  the  young  doctor's  face  were 
imploring. 

"  Will  he  wake  first  ?"  she  asked. 

The  young  fellow  seemed  to  shrink  before 
the  majesty  of  her  suffering.  Alexina  put 


184  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

out  a  hand  to  touch  her  and  drew  it  back, 
afraid.  If  only  she  were  not  so  superbly 
self-controlled. 

'Yes,  he  will  most  likely  awake,"  he  as- 
sured her,  and  must  have  done  so  even  if  he 
had  not  thought  it. 

She  took  off  her  hat,  a  large,  festive  affair 
with  plumes  and  jewelled  buckles,  and 
dropped  her  wrap.  There  was  a  low  chair 
near  the  bed.  She  drew  it  close  and  sat 
down,  her  eyes  on  the  face  on  the  pillow. 
Jewels  gleamed  in  the  lace  of  her  gown, 
and  the  shining  silk  of  its  folds  trailed  the 
floor  about  her. 

Alexina  stole  across  to  a  far  and  shadowed 
corner  of  the  room  and  sat  down  by  a  table. 
She  was  crying  and  striving  to  keep  it  noise- 
less. 

The  doctor  stood  irresolute,  then  made  a 
movement. 


PART  TWO  136 

"Do  you  have  to  go  ?"  said  Harriet,  turn- 
ing. 

"No;  I  expect  to  be  here  in  the  building 
all  night.  There  might  come  a  —  change." 

"Stay,  please,"  she  asked  him;  "here." 

He  sat  down  by  the  open  fire  and  she 
turned  again  to  the  face  on  the  pillow. 

The  night  passed.  Now  and  then  the 
Sister  moved  noiselessly  about,  or  the  doc- 
tor came  to  the  bedside,  lifted  the  inert  hand, 
laid  it  down,  and  went  back  to  the  fire. 

Alexina  moved  from  her  chair  to  the  win- 
dow or  to  the  fire  and  back  again.  Now 
and  again  she  knew  that  she  must  have 
slept  a  little,  her  head  against  the  table.  So 
the  night  passed. 

The  square  framed  by  the  window  sash 
was  turning  grey  when  there  came  a  move- 
ment, and  the  eyelids  of  the  face  on  the  pil- 
low lifted.  Harriet  was  leaning  over  before 


136  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

the  others,  the  nurse  or  doctor,  got  to  the 
bed,  and  must  have  been  there  when  the  eyes 
opened.  She  must  have  seen  consciousness 
of  her  presence  in  them,  too,  and  possibly 
questioning,  for  she  spoke  rapidly,  eagerly, 
like  one  who  had  said  the  thing  over  and 
over  in  readiness  for  the  moment,  though 
her  voice  shook.  ;<You  said  you  loved  me 
from  your  soul,  and,  living  or  dead,  would 
go  on  loving  and  wanting  my  love  ?  " 

There  seemed  no  wonder  in  the  voice  re- 
plying, only  content.  There  was  even  the 
usual  touch  of  humour  in  his  reply.  "And 
will  go  on  wanting  your  love,"  he  said. 

"But  I  am  here  to  tell  you  how  I  love 
you,"  she  returned. 

The  room  was  still,  like  death.  Then  in 
the  man's  voice:  "Is  this  pity,  Harriet?" 

Her  voice  hurried  on.  "  And  how,  living  or 
dead,  I  will  go  on  loving  and  wanting  you." 


PART  TWO  137 

It  was  no  pity  that  trembled  in  her  voice, 
it  was  passion.  He  moved. 

After  a  time  he  spoke  again.  It  was  to 
call  her  name,  to  say  it  as  to  himself.  This 
time  he  knew  it  was  love  this  woman  was 
talking  of,  not  pity. 

"I  could  not  bear  it  that  you  should  not 
know,"  she  hurried  on  to  tell  him.  "I 
made  them  let  me  come  to  you." 

"  You  know  then,  Harriet ;  they  have  told 
you?" 

She  was  human;  the  sound  that  broke 
from  her  was  the  cry  of  a  rent  soul. 

The  doctor,  who  had  gone  back  to  the 
mantel,  crouched  over  the  fire.  The  Sister 
seemed  to  shrink  into  the  shadows  beyond 
the  narrow  bed.  Alexina  clenched  her 
hands,  her  head  on  her  arms  outstretched 
on  the  table. 

But   Harriet   had   regained   herself.     "I 


188  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

am  here  to  ask  you  something.  May  I 
be  married  to  you  —  now  —  at  once,  I 
mean?" 

His  response  was  not  audible,  only  her  re- 
ply. "  Oh,  surely  you  will.  For  the  rest  of 
my  life  —  to  have  been  -  -  you  will  give  me 
this,  won't  you?" 

There  was  a  quick  movement  from  him, 
and  a  sound  of  warning  from  the  nurse  who 
moved  forward  out  of  the  shadow. 

Material  things  seemed  to  come  back  to 
Harriet.  Alarm  sprang  into  her  voice. 
"Shall  I  go  away?"  she  asked  the  nurse, 
even  timidly. 

The  answer  came  from  him.  "No;  oh, 
no.  Since  it  may  be  for  so  little  time  I  may 
ask  it  of  you;  stay  with  me,  Harriet." 

She  turned  to  the  doctor. 

"Stay,"  he  told  her,  poor  boy,  new  to 
these  things. 


PART   TWO  139 

"Then  give  me  my  way,"  Harriet  begged, 
turning  back  again.  She  had  forgotten  the 
others  already.  "You  said  that  after  what 
happened  between  you  and  Austen  you 
wanted  it  known  how  you  felt  to  me.  Have- 
n't I  the  same  right  and  more,  since  it  was 
my  brother  who  said  it,  to  want  the  world  to 
know  how  I  feel  to  you  ?  " 

They  could  feel  the  laugh  in  his  reply. 
"  The  world,  the  world,  as  if  you  ever  cared 
for  what  the  world  —  come,  be  honest,  Har- 
riet; you  say  this  in  the  generous  desire  of 
making  it  up  to  me." 

"But  I  do  —  I  do  care.  I  could  clap  my 
hands,  I  could  glory  to  cry  it  from  the  house- 
tops, how  I  care,  how  I  am  here,  on  my 
knees,  begging  you  will  marry  me." 

"  You  are  kneeling  ?  Yes  ?  Kneel  then ; 
even  that,  since  it  brings  you  closer.  But 
let's  not  talk  of  this  now.  I'm  not  used  to 


140  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

the  knowledge  of  the  first  yet.     Will  you  put 
your  hand  in  mine,  Harriet  ?" 

The  girl  over  in  the  shadow  felt  that  her 
heart  would  break.  And  this  was  love.  The 
great,  sad  thing  was  love ! 

He  was  talking  again.  *'  I  never  thought, 
surely,  to  be  a  stick  of  a  man  like  this.  I 
could  have  made  a  royal  lover,  Harriet.  A 
man's  blood  at  forty  is  like  wine  at  its 
fulness  .  My  head  —  won't  lift  —  God,  that 
it  should  come  to  find  me  like  this!  yet, 
kiss  me,  will  you,  Harriet  ?" 

But  a  moment  and  she  returned  to  her 
pleading.     "They  will  send  me  away  from 
you,  you  know,  I  have  no  right  to  be  here  - 
unless  you  give  it  to  me  ?" 

Was  she  using  this,  the  inference,  to  move 
him? 

For  he  caught  it  at  once.      *  You  came  - 
I  see,  I  see." 


PART   TWO  141 

But  she  had  fled  from  her  position.  "  It's 
not  that,  as  if  I  cared,  as  if  you  thought  I 
cared,  it's  because  I  want  to  have  been — " 

But  the  other  had  stuck.  "  Is  the  doctor 
there?"  he  asked. 

The  young  fellow  came  to  the  bed. 

"I  would  like  to  see  Father  Ryan,"  said 
the  Major. 

The  priest  came.  The  two  were  inti- 
mates. He  listened  to  the  instructions,  the 
exigencies  of  the  case  to  be  met  by  him.  A 
license  was  necessary.  "And  try  and  get 
Miss  Blair's  brother  to  accompany  you,  and 
to  come  here  with  you;  you  will  make  it  all 
clear  to  him." 

Harriet  was  looking  up  at  the  priest, 
whom  she  saw  as  the  friend  of  the  man  she 
loved.  "And  you  will  come  back  and  mar- 
ry us  yourself,  won't  you  ?"  she  asked. 

He  was  looking  down  at  her.     Even  after 


112  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

the  long  night,  in  the  cold  light  of  a  winter 
dawn,  and  in  the  garishness  of  an  evening 
gown  in  daylight,  she  was  triumphantly 
beautiful.  With  her  hand  on  the  smooth 
brown  hand  of  the  Major,  she  sat  and  looked 
up  at  the  cassocked  priest.  The  marble  of 
her  face  had  given  way  to  a  divine  light  and 
radiance. 

He  looked  down  on  her. 

"  I  will  come,"  he  told  her. 

It  was  some  hours  before  he  was  back. 
The  young  doctor  had  gone  and  come. 
Dawn  had  broadened  into  a  grey  and  sullen 
day.  Breakfast  was  sent  up  and  placed  in 
an  adjoining  room  for  Harriet  and  Alexina. 
The  girl  tried  to  eat,  if  only  to  seem  grate- 
ful to  the  Sister  bringing  it,  but  Harriet 
wandered  about  the  room,  and,  when  Alex- 
ina brought  her  a  cup  of  coffee,  shook  her 
head.  She  watched  the  door  until  the  doc- 


PART  TWO  143 

tors  were  gone  and  she  might  return  to  him, 
then  went  in  and  sat  by  him  again.  His 
eyes  were  closed,  but  his  hand,  seeking  as  she 
sat  down,  found  hers.  Later,  as  the  priest 
returned,  the  gaze  from  the  pillow  turned  to 
the  door  eagerly.  Austen  was  not  with  him. 
The  face  steeled. 

The  Mother  came  in,  and  at  a  sign  from 
the  priest  they  gathered  around,  Alexina, 
the  young  doctor,  the  nurse. 

With  his  hand  in  Harriet's  the  Major  fol- 
lowed to  the  end. 

Nor  was  he  going  to  die.  There  was 
deeper  knowledge  of  life  yet  for  the  woman 
by  him  to  learn. 

Afterward,  Doctor  Ransome  drove  Alex- 
ina home  in  his  buggy,  where  she  and  the 
voluble,  excited  Katy  packed  some  things 
for  Harriet. 

"And  Miss  Harriet  never  to  let  us  hear 


144  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT    ^ 

a  word,  and  Maggie  and  me  never  closing 
our  eyes  all  the  night,  Miss  Alexina,"  Katy 
said. 

.  And  Harriet  Blair  a  person  usually  so  ob- 
servant and  punctilious  about  everything! 

"  And  Mr.  Blair,  he  asked  where  you  were, 
Miss  Harriet  and  you,  when  he  came,  and 
then  he  dressed  and  went  to  the  party  he 
was  going  to  take  you  to,  as  if  nothing  had 
happened.  And  the  Father  came  this  mor- 
ning and  talked,  but  Mr.  Blair  hardly  said  a 
word,  and  when  they  left  the  priest  went  one 
way  and  Mr.  Blair  he  went  the  other." 

Doctor  Ransome  came  in  his  buggy  and 
took  Alexina  back.  On  reaching  the  infir- 
mary they  found  that  Major  Rathbone's 
sister  from  Bardstown,  who  had  been  sent 
for,  had  arrived.  Alexina  had  not  known 
that  he  had  a  sister  until  she  found  her  in  the 
room  next  to  the  Major's,  with  Harriet. 


PART   TWO  145 

She  was  childlike  and  small  and  was  look- 
ing at  Harriet,  helpless  and  frightened.  She 
was,  it  proved,  twenty-three  years  old,  and 
a  widow  with  two  children. 

"And  Stevie  takes  care  of  us,"  she  ex- 
plained. "Stevie"  was  the  Major;  "us" 
was  herself  and  the  babies. 

She  had  brought  both  the  babies.  "I 
couldn't  leave  them  and  come,  you  know," 
she  said. 

One  of  them  lay  on  the  bed,  asleep,  a  little 
chap  four  years  old,  his  coat  unfastened,  his 
hair  tumbled.  The  other,  the  younger, 
asleep  too,  lay  on  the  mother's  knee,  Har- 
riet regarding  him.  He  was  aquiline,  lean 
and  handsome,  baby  as  he  was,  like  a  little 
deer  hound. 

"His  name  is  Stevie,"  said  Stephen's  sis- 
ter. 

Harriet  looked  up  from  the  child  to  the 


146  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

mother,  almost  jealously.  "Then  he  is 
mine,  too ;  I  have  some  part  in  him  too,  since 
his  name  is  Stephen." 


CHAPTER   FOUR 

For  two  months  Austen  Blair  and  his  niece 
lived  on  in  the  big  house. 

Alexina  wondered  if  her  uncle  were  not 
different  from  other  people,  for  it  must  be 
the  abnormal  human  who  would  not  ask  one 
question  about  his  sister;  mere  curiosity 
must  have  demanded  that  much,  Alexina 
thought,  having  a  lively  curiosity  herself. 
To  be  sure,  Aunt  Harriet,  from  Uncle  Aus- 
ten's standpoint,  had  outraged  every  con- 
vention to  which  they  had  been  bred;  she 
had  married  a  man  between  whom  and  her 
family  there  had  been  bitterest  enmity,  be- 
tween whom  and  her  brother  there  had  been 
personal  encounter;  she  had  gone  from  her 


148  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

brother's  roof  to  be  married  in  a  Catholic 
institution,  by  a  Catholic  priest. 

It  almost  made  Alexina  laugh  when  she 
summed  up  the  enormity  of  the  offending. 
She  gloried  in  it  herself;  she  adored  Aunt 
Harriet  and  loved  her  for  it. 

But  the  fact  that  her  uncle  could  thus  ig- 
nore the  whole  subject  made  it  harder  for 
Alexina  to  go  to  him  about  a  matter  which 
had  arisen  concerning  herself. 

A  letter  had  come  to  her  from  her  mother. 
Though  it  was  eleven  years  since  she  had 
seen  the  handwriting,  she  knew  it,  as  Katy, 
bringing  the  mail,  handed  it  to  her. 

It  seemed  to  Alexina  that  her  pulses  stop- 
ped and  the  tide  of  her  blood  flowed  back- 
ward. Katy,  closing  the  door  as  she  went, 
brought  her  to  herself,  and  she  flung  the  let- 
ter from  her  the  width  of  the  room,  her  gaze 
following  it. 


PART   TWO  149 

She  sat  like  one  stunned  with  horror. 
Then  rage  succeeded.  "What  right  had 
this  —  this  so-called  mother  to  write  to  her  ?" 

But  she  need  not  read  it,  and  Alexina 
sprang  up  and  went  about  her  household 
duties,  as  if  in  interviews  with  grocery-man 
and  butcher,  with  cook  and  laundress,  she 
could  forget  that  her  mother  had  written 
her,  that  the  letter  lay  upstairs  awaiting  her. 

She  would  not  read  it,  she  assured  herself; 
but  all  the  while  she  knew  that  she  would, 
and  when  the  time  came  she  opened  it  quiet- 
ly and  read  it  through.  Then  she  put  it  in 
its  envelope  and  threw  it  from  her  again 
across  the  room,  and  sat  immovable,  the 
lines  of  her  young  face  setting  as  though  by 
some  steeling  process.  Suddenly  she  caught 
sight  of  her  face  in  the  glass.  On  it  was  the 
look  of  Uncle  Austen. 

She  sprang  up  and,  dragging  forth  her 


150  THE   HOUSE   OF  FULFILMENT 

cloak  and  hat  and  furs,  fled  from  the  house. 
She  must  turn  to  some  one,  she  must  get 
away  from  the  horror  that  was  upon  her. 
She  would  go  to  Aunt  Harriet. 

It  was  a  frosty  day  and  a  light  fall  of  snow 
was  on  the  pavements.  She  met  Dr.  Ran- 
some  and  Emily  Carringford  strolling  along 
as  though  it  were  summer.  She  had  intro- 
duced him  to  Emily,  and  one  would  say  she 
had  done  him  a  good  turn.  She  smiled  as 
they  called  to  her  from  across  the  street.  He 
admired  Emily  and  it  looked  as  if  Emily  - 
but,  then,  Emily  sparkled  and  glowed  for 
any  man,  even  for  Uncle  Austen. 

She  saw  Georgy  wave  his  hat  gaily  from 
the  platform  of  a  street-car  and  look  as 
though  he  meant  to  swing  off  and  join  her. 
She  was  seeing  a  good  deal  of  him  these 
days.  She  shook  her  head  and  pointed  with 
her  muff,  and  a  moment  later  turned  in  at 


PART  TWO  151 

the  Infirmary  gate.  She  had  walked  rapid- 
ly and  felt  better  somehow.  The  Major 
was  daily  growing  stronger,  though  the  fear 
was  that  he  might  never  walk  again,  but, 
rather  than  accept  this  verdict,  he  and  Aunt 
Harriet  were  going  East  for  advice  or,  if  need 
be,  to  Paris. 

Paris !  The  horror  surged  back  upon  her. 
She  stopped  short  in  her  very  turning  to  close 
the  gate  and  stood  engrossed  with  the  misery 
of  it,  for  it  was  from  Paris  her  mother  had 
written  to  say  she  was  coming  to  her. 

"I  have  reached  the  end  of  my  money, 
ma  chere,"  she  wrote,  "as  you  come  into 
yours,  which  Austen,  being  a  Blair,  will  have 
cared  for.  I  will  teach  you  to  love  life,  now 
that  you  are  grown.  When  you  were  a 
child  you  were  impossible,  you  disconcerted 
and  judged  me,  but  it  is  unfair  to  let  you 
taste  life  according  to  Blair  seasoning  only. 


152  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

So  write  me,  ma  fille,  mon  enfant,  of  your 
whereabouts,  in  the  care  of  your  Uncle 
Randolph  in  Washington,  for  I  follow  this 
steamer  across." 

And  then,  as  though  her  mood  had 
changed:  "In  any  case,  I  shall  not  trouble 
you  long.  It  is  my  lungs,  they  tell  me.  It 
is  a  curious  sensation,  may  you  never  know 
it,  having  your  furniture  seized.  Le  Bon 
Dieu  and  Celeste  have  stood  between  me 
and  much." 

Celeste!  Tall,  gaunt,  and  taciturn  — 
negro  mammy  to  Alexina  and  to  Molly  be- 
fore her.  Celeste!  It  all  stifled  the  girl. 
She  hated  Celeste.  Celeste  had  chosen  to 
go  with  the  mother,  and  the  child  had  been 
left  by  both. 

And  where  was  M.  Gamier,  the  husband 
— "the  promising  young  French  poet,"  as 
Uncle  Randolph  had  termed  him  to  some 


PART  TWO  153 

one,  in  the  child  Alexina's  hearing,  those 
years  ago  ?  The  letter  made  no  mention  of 
him. 

Alexina  closed  the  Infirmary  gate  and 
walked  up  the  wide  pavement  to  the  en- 
trance. The  little  Sister  knew  her  well  now 
and  smiled  a  welcome  as  she  let  her  in. 
Passing  along  the  hall  Alexina  hesitated  be- 
fore the  marble  saint  in  his  niche.  Hers 
was  no  controversial  soul ;  what  she  wanted 
was  comfort.  Perhaps  the  blend  of  Pres- 
byterianism  and  Catholicism  may  be  toler- 
ance. Then  she  went  on  through  the  spot- 
less halls  to  the  second  floor. 

As  the  door  opened  Harriet  looked 
around.  She  had  been  writing  by  the 
Major's  couch,  and  he  had  fallen  asleep,  his 
hand  on  hers,  the  portfolio  lying  open  on  her 
lap.  She  smiled  at  Alexina,  then  nodded 
at  the  hand  detaining  her. 


154  THE   HOUSE   OF  FULFILMENT 

Could  it  be  the  same  Aunt  Harriet,  this 
yearning-eyed  woman?  Her  hair,  always 
beautiful,  had  loosened  and  drooped  over 
her  temple,  and  the  thought  swept  upon 
Alexina,  how  human,  how  sweetly  dear  it 
made  her  look,  this  touch  of  carelessness  be- 
cause of  greater  concern.  It  moved  the  girl, 
bending  to  kiss  her,  to  slip  to  her  knees  in- 
stead and  throw  adoring  young  arms  about 
her. 

And  then  a  strange  thing  happened;  the 
head  of  the  woman  drooped  for  support 
against  the  girl's  shoulder  and,  with  a  sud- 
den trembling  all  through  her,  Harriet  be- 
gan to  cry.  Only  for  a  moment;  then,  lift- 
ing her  head  and  putting  the  hand  of  the 
sleeper  gently  on  the  couch,  she  arose  and 
drew  the  girl  over  to  the  window. 

"You  go  to-morrow?"  asked  Alexina. 

"Yes;  Dr.  Ransome  has  arranged  to  go 


PART  TWO  155 

with  us  then.  I  don't  know  why  I  cry,  for 
he's  better.  He's  been  dictating  an  edito- 
rial. I'm  unnerved,  I  suppose,  and  it's  be- 
ginning to  tell." 

"You  are  worn  out  with  the  two  months 
of  strain,  Aunt  Harriet,  and  the  worry  and 
unhappiness." 

"  Unhappiness  ?  "  Harriet  laughed  a  lit- 
tle wildly.  "  Unhappiness  ?  I  thought  you 
understood  better  than  that.  I'm  happy, 
for  the  first  time  in  all  my  easy,  prosperous, 
level  life.  It's  out  of  the  depths  we  bring  up 
happiness,  Alexina.  And  come  what  may, 
I've  known,  am  knowing  it  —  nothing  can 
take  the  knowledge  from  me  now." 

She  was  crying  again,  her  head  bent 
against  the  window  pane.  "I  never  knew 
how  to  get  near  to  any  one ;  I've  been  alone 
all  my  life  till  now.  Maybe  you  have  been 
lonely  all  along.  I  didn't  know.  Living 


156  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

with  Austen  and  me  —  oh,  I'm  sorry  for 
you,  Alexina.  I'm  going  away  now  with 
Stephen ;  but  when  we  come  back  I  mean  to 
make  it  up  to  you  and  see  that  you  have  op- 
portunities and  friends.  Oh,  Alexina,  we 
do  all  require  it,  the  joy  of  having  some  one 
needing  us.  And  you'll  be  nice  to  Louise 
for  me,  won't  you,  while  we're  gone  ?  " 

Louise  was  the  sister  of  Stephen,  and  she 
and  the  babies  were  to  remain  in  Louisville 
in  the  house  the  Major  and  Harriet  had 
taken  against  their  return,  an  unpretentious 
house  on  a  cross  street. 

"  Stephen  has  arranged  it  all,"  Harriet  was 
saying;  **he  won't  let  me  do  a  thing.  He 
will  not  consider  for  a  moment  that  he  isn't 
going  to  be  able  to  keep  his  position  on  the 
paper;  they're  filling  it  for  him  among  them- 
selves still.  If  he  wasn't  so  —  so  fiercely 
proud!  It's  Austen  that  rankles,  you  see." 


PART  TWO  157 

There  was  a  movement  on  the  couch. 
Harriet  went  swiftly  over  to  the  waker.  It 
is  on  Olympus  they  take  time  for  deliberate 
and  stately  progression;  Harriet  had  come 
down  to  the  human  world. 

"It's  a  soporific  thing,"  quoth  the  Major, 
"listening  to  one's  own  editorials.  I  never 
heard  one  through  before.  You  there, 
Alexina  ?  Where  have  you  been  these  two 
days  ?  I  hope  you're  not  holding  it  against 
us  that  Georgy  is  sending  all  his  flowers  to 
me?  It's  his  delicate  way,  you  see;  reach- 
ing round  through  me  via  Harriet  to  you." 

There  was  a  tap  and  the  little  Sister  en- 
tered. It  was  company.  It  was  always 
company.  The  Major's  life  had  been  close 
to  the  heart  and  centre  of  things.  It  was 
laughable  to  see  the  reserved  Harriet's  pride 
in  his  popularity.  It  was  a  certain  judge 
this  time,  and  with  him  an  old  comrade-at- 


158  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

arms,  come  up  from  the  Pennyroyal  to  see 
him. 

"But  had  you  better?"  Harriet  expostu- 
lated. 

The  Major  caught  her  hand  and  laughed 
at  her.  "  But  these  are  fond  farewells,  you 
see,  dear  lady,"  he  explained. 

Was  he  drawing  her  to  him  by  the  hand 
he  held?  For  suddenly  Harriet  bent  over 
and  kissed  him;  nor  did  Alexina  feel  any 
consciousness  or  shame,  and  the  little  Sister 
went  out  softly  with  glistening  eyes. 

So  it  came  about  that  Alexina  did  not  open 
her  heart  to  Harriet  after  all,  and  the  aunt 
went  away  next  day  without  knowing. 

Yet  Harriet  influenced  the  girl  in  her  de- 
cision. 

Alexina,  standing  at  her  window,  watched 
a  sparrow  tugging  at  some  morsel  that  had 
fallen  upon  the  snow  and  essaying  to  fly 


PART   TWO  159 

upward  and  away  with  it.  She  was  lone- 
some; the  house  was  so  big;  it  seemed  so 
empty.  She  was  thinking  about  Aunt  Har- 
riet, who  was  giving  her  strength  out  to 
some  one,  who  had  opened  her  arms  to 
Louise  and  the  babies,  whose  days  were 
full  of  thought  and  planning,  and  through 
whose  eyes  shone  something  never  there 
before. 

Alexina  left  the  window  and  re-read  the 
postscript  of  her  letter.  "  In  any  case  I  shall 
not  trouble  you  long.  It  is  my  lungs,  they 
tell  me.  It  is  a  curious  sensation,  may  you 
never  know  it,  having  your  furniture  seized. 
Le  bon  Dieu  and  Celeste  have  stood  be- 
tween me  and  much." 

It  was  to  her  uncle  after  all  that  Alexina 
went  with  the  matter  that  night.  He  was  in 
the  parlour  reading  and  laid  down  his  paper 
to  give  attention.  The  substance  of  the 


160  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

letter  heard,  the  two  perpendicular  lines 
between  his  brow  relaxed,  for  it  was  a  case 
of  his  judgment  being  justified,  and  a  man 
likes  to  feel  he  has  been  right. 

"It  is  what  I  expected,"  he  said,  "only 
it  has  been  longer  coming.  She  has  her 
father's  people  in  Washington,  she  has  no 
claim  on  you."  He  lifted  his  paper. 

"  But  —  "  said  Alexina. 
1  He  lowered  it  and  waited. 

Her  mouth  grew  set.  He  always  made  her 
stubborn.  Fingering  the  upholstery  of  his 
chair,  she  looked  at  him,  though  it  took 
courage  to  look  at  Austen  Blair  under  some 
circumstances.  She  found  herself  suddenly 
disposed  to  defend  her  mother.  "But  if 
I  feel  a  claim,  Uncle  Austen?  I  wanted 
to  tell  you  I  think  I  ought  to  write  to  her 
to  come." 

"Come  where?"  asked  Austen  Blair. 


PART  TWO  161 

To  be  sure  —  where  could  she  write  her  to 
come  ?  There  fell  a  silence. 

Then  he  spoke,  and  curtly.  "In  three 
months  you  will  be  of  age,  a  fact  which  no 
doubt  your  mother  has  remembered.  Until 
then  I  forbid  it;  after  that  it  is  your  affair. 
In  the  interim,  it  has  been  my  intention,  and 
I  meant  to  say  as  much  to  you,  to  make  you 
acquainted  with  your  affairs.  I  had  expect- 
ed you  to  live  on  in  my  house.  Under  the 
conditions  you  propose  you  will,  of  course, 
make  your  own  arrangements." 

Alexina,  listening,  looked  at  him.  One 
would  have  said  tears  were  welling.  Had  he 
raised  his  eyes  to  hers,  put  out  a  hand  — 

But  he  returned  to  his  paper. 

Her  cheeks  blazed,  her  head  went  up,  and 
something  ran  like  a  vivifying  flame  over  her 
face.  It  was  a  pity  Austen  did  not  see  her 
then.  He  demanded  beauty  in  a  woman. 


102  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

He  should  have  seen  his  young  niece  angry. 
Then  she  turned  and  went  up  to  her  room 
and  wrote  her  mother  to  come.  But,  the 
letter  written,  she  leaned  upon  the  desk  and 
broke  into  wild  and  passionate  crying. 


CHAPTER   FIVE 

Alexina  for  several  years  had  been  made 
partially  acquainted  with  her  affairs. 

The  evening  her  uncle  chose  to  go  over 
the  whole  with  her,  Alexina,  in  the  midst 
of  it,  put  a  hand  timidly  on  his.  "I  am 
grateful,  Uncle  Austen,  you  know  that," 
she  said. 

The  matter  of  the  mother  was  fresh  be- 
tween them.  "  I  have  been  paid,  as  any  one 
else,  for  my  services,"  he  answered. 

She  drew  her  hand  back. 

The  books  were  a  clear  record  of  what  had 
been  done  year  by  year. 

"  Cowan  Steamboat  Mortgage,"  read  Al- 


164  THE   HOUSE   OF  FULFILMENT 

exina  from  a  page  of  early  entries.  "  What 
was  that?" 

"  A  mortgage  held  for  you  on  a  boat  built 
at  the  Cowan  shipyards." 

"  What  was  the  name  of  the  boat  ?"  Alex- 
ma's  voice  sounded  suddenly  strained  and 
odd. 

"The  'King  William/"  said  Austen. 
"The  boat  never  paid  for  itself,  and  the 
mortgage  was  foreclosed  and  the  boat  sold." 

The  girl's  eyes  narrowed  with  curious  in- 
tentness.  As  she  listened  she  pushed  her 
hair  back,  with  the  hand  propping  her  head 
as  if  its  weight  oppressed  her.  "  And  then  ?  " 
she  asked.  "  Here  are  more  entries." 

"I  bought  the  boat  in  at  a  figure  a  little 
over  the  mortgage;  river  affairs  were  down. 
Later,  a  couple  of  years  —  you'll  find  it 
there  —  the  boat  sold  for  double  the  price." 

She  closed  the  book.     "That's  enough,  I 


PART  TWO  165 

believe,"  she  said,  "for  one  evening."  But 
it  is  doubtful  if  he  was  at  all  aware  of  any- 
thing strange  in  her  tone. 

She  tripped  on  her  skirts,  so  impetuous 
was  her  flight  up  the  stairs,  and,  in  her  room, 
flung  herself  upon  the  bed.  Her  hands  even 
beat  fiercely  as  she  cried,  but  there  was  no  doll 
Sally  Ann  to  be  gathered  in  for  comfort  now. 

They  had  loved,  her,  they  had  been  good 
to  her,  Mrs.  Leroy  had  rocked  her,  the  Cap- 
tain had  held  her  on  his  knee. 

She  sprang  up  and  went  to  bathe  her  eyes. 
If  she  knew  where  they  were,  or  how  to  find 
them,  she  would  go  — 

She  wondered  if  Emily  or  her  mother  had 
known  about  this. 

She  went  to  the  Carringfords*  the  next 
afternoon.  She  liked  to  go  over  to  the  little 
brown  house  and  she  liked  Emily's  strong- 
featured,  outspoken  mother;  there  was  a 


166  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

certain  homely  charm  even  in  the  clear- 
starched fresh  calico  dresses  she  wore. 

Mrs.  Carringford  was  drawing  large 
loaves  of  golden-brown  bread  from  the  oven 
as  Alexina  came  in  by  way  of  the  kitchen 
door.  The  smell  of  it  was  good. 

"Wait  a  moment,  Alexina,"  she  said,  as 
she  rose  and  turned  the  loaves  out  onto  a 
clean  crash  towel  spread  jipon  the  table.  "  I 
want  a  word  with  you  before  you  go  up- 
stairs. It's  about  Emily;  you  know,  I 
suppose,  that  your  uncle  is  coming  over 
right  often  to  see  her  ?  —  That  big  hat  looks 
well  on  your  yellow  hair,  Alexina  —  And 
I'm  going  to  be  plain:  it's  bad  for  Emily; 
she's  discontented  with  things  now,  she 
always  has  been." 

Alexina's  eyes  dilated.  "Coming  to  see 
Emily  ?  Does  —  does  Emily  want  him  to 
come?" 


PART  TWO  167 

"Alexina,"  called  Emily  down  the  stairs; 
"  aren't  you  coming  up  ?" 

Alexina  went  up  to  the  room  which  Em- 
ily shared  with  her  two  little  sisters.  It 
was  hard  on  her.  There  were  various  at- 
tempts to  have  it  as  a  girl  fancies  her  room. 
The  airiness  of  Swiss  muslins,  however 
cheap,  the  sheen  of  the  color  over  which 
the  airiness  lies,  the  fluttering  of  ruffled 
edges— these  seem  to  be  expressions  of  girl- 
hood. But  Emily's  little  sisters  shared  the 
room  with  her.  They  were  there  when 
Alexina  entered. 

"Now  go  out,"  Emily  told  them;  "we 
want  to  be  alone." 

The  little  girls  looked  up.  Miss  Alexina 
was  tall  and  fair  and  friendly,  she  wore  love- 
ly dresses,  she  went  to  balls,  and  they  adored 
her.  She  felt  the  flattery  and  liked  it  too. 
"Oh,"  she  interceded,  "no,  don't,  Emily." 


168  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

"Yes,"  said  Emily;  "we  want  to  talk. 
Go  on,  Nan  —  Nell;  don't  you  hear?" 

The  little  sisters  gathered  up  books  and 
slates  with  some  show  of  resentment ;  it  was 
their  room  too.  Emily  shut  the  door  be- 
hind them. 

The  breadths  of  a  light-hued  silk  dress 
were  lying  about  the  room.  Emily  was  rip- 
ping on  the  waist.  "  It's  a  dress  Miss  Har- 
riet gave  mother  for  a  quilt  while  you  were 
away,  but  I  told  her  it  would  be  no  such 
thing  if  I  could  devise  it  otherwise." 

She  frowned,  then  threw  the  waist  down. 
"  Not  that  I  don't  hate  it  —  the  devising, 
the  scheming." 

"  I  wouldn't  do  it,"  said  Alexina  bluntly. 

"  Which  is  easy  for  you  to  say,"  retorted 
Emily,  her  eyes  sweeping  Alexina  from  top 
to  toe.  Harriet  Blair  knew  how  to  dress  the 
girl. 


PART  TWO  169 

14 Yes,'*  said  Alexina;  "I  suppose  that's 
true."  It  was  part  of  her  hold  on  Emily,  her 
fairness.  "  But  you're  welcome  to  anything 
of  mine;  I've  reason  somehow  to  hate 'em  all." 

The  colour  heightened  on  Emily's  face 
and  she  looked  eager.  Passion  expresses 
itself  variously.  The  stern  old  grandfather 
abased  and  denied  the  physical  and  material 
needs.  Emily  exulted  in  the  very  sheen  of 
rich  fabric,  in  the  feel  of  satin  laid  to  cheek. 
Was  the  grandchild  but  fulfilling  the  law  of 
reaction  ?  The  soul  of  Emily  and  the  soul 
of  the  old  preacher  saw  each  other  across  a 
vast  abyss. 

"It's  for  the  Orbisons'  I  need  a  dress," 
said  Emily.  "Of  course,  I  know  it's  be- 
cause I  have  a  voice  I'm  asked." 

Yet,  knowing  that  for  herself  she  never 
would  have  been  asked,  there  was  exulta- 
tion in  Emily's  tone. 


170  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

Alexina  got  up  suddenly.  Somehow  she 
didn't  want  to  discuss  the  Leroys  with  Emily 
after  all. 

Down-stairs  she  stopped  again  in  the  spot- 
less, shining  kitchen,  the  clean  odour  where 
soft-soap  is  used  always  lingering.  Alexina 
liked  it;  all  her  knowledge  of  the  dear  home- 
ly details  of  life  she  was  familiar  with,  she 
had  gotten  here. 

"You  remember  the  Leroys?"  she  asked 
Mrs.  Carringford. 

"Why,  yes;  I  sent  them  milk  twice  a 
day." 

"  Did  you  know  why  they  went  away  ?" 

"Wasn't  it  because  they  had  put  every- 
thing into  that  —  er  -  She  stopped. 

"  Boat  ?  "  suggested  the  girl. 

"Boat" — Mrs.  Carringford  accepted  the 
word  —  "  and   so   had   to,   after  it  was  - 
er— " 


PART  TWO  171 

"  Sold,"  supplied  Alexina.     "  Did  you  - 
did  people  know  who  it  was  held  the  mort- 
gage?" 

The  plain-spoken  Mrs.  Carringford  look- 
ed embarrassed.  "  Well,  Alexina,  you  know 
how  it  is  in  a  neighbourhood." 

"Then  you  knew  the  boat  was  bought  in 
for  me?" 

"Why,  yes;  I  did." 

"  Did  the  Leroys  know  it  ?  " 

"  Why,  naturally,  I  should  suppose  so." 

That  was  all  that  Alexina  wanted  to  know, 
yet  not  all,  either.  Her  colour  rose  a  little. 
It  made  her  pretty.  "Do  you  know  any- 
thing of  the  Leroys  since  ?" 

"Not  a  word,"  said  Mrs.  Carringford. 
"  What  do  you  hear  from  Miss  Harriet  and 
Major  Rathbone  ?  " 

"  They  are  still  East.  Dr.  Ransome  came 
back  yesterday." 


172  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

"Yes;  I  know  he  did,"  said  Mrs.  Carring- 
ford.  "  He  was  here  to  see  Emily  last  night. 
He's  a  nice  boy."  There  was  emphasis  in 
her  way  of  making  the  statement.  Harriet 
Blair  had  once  remarked  that  Mrs.  Carring- 
f ord  was  that  anomaly  —  a  sane  woman. 
Yet  she  opposed  the  visits  of  Austen  Blair 
and  spoke  heartily  concerning  the  other  one. 
"  Garrard  is  a  nice  boy;  I  like  him." 


CHAPTER  SIX 

Alexina  became  twenty-one  in  May.  She 
had  found  that  in  the  settling  of  her  affairs  it 
would  be  necessary  for  her  to  remain  in 
Louisville  and  so  had  written  her  mother  to 
come  to  her  there.  She  explained  about 
the  change  in  her  We  to  the  Carringfords, 
to  find  that  they  knew  all  about  her  mother; 
probably  her  little  world,  Georgy,  Dr.  Ran- 
some,  knew  it,  too,  while  these  years  she  had 
comforted  herself  with  the  thought  that,  at 
least,  it  was  her  secret  shame. 

Mrs.  Carringford  put  an  arm  about  her 
and  kissed  her.  There  was  approval  in  the 
action. 


174  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

Emily  looked  at  her,  then  laughed  nerv- 
ously, while  a  vivid  scarlet  rose  to  the  roots 
of  her  chestnut  hair. 

As  Alexina  passed  through  the  front-room 
study  going  home,  the  old  minister  glanced 
up  from  his  writing  and  called  her  name.  He 
pushed  his  spectacles  back  onto  his  leonine 
head,  looking  up  as  she  came  toward  him. 
She  was  surprised,  for  he  never  had  seemed 
conscious  even  of  her  comings  and  goings. 

"There  are  two  ties  that  are  not  of  our 
making,"  he  told  her;  "the  spiritual  tie  be- 
tween the  Creator  and  the  created,  and  the 
material  tie  between  the  parent  and  the 
child.  They  are  ties  not  of  duty  but  of 
nature,  as  indestructible  as  matter.  God 
go  with  you." 

She  felt  strange  and  choked,  though  she 
was  not  sure  she  knew  what  he  meant. 

A  week  after  she  became  of  age  she  was 


PART   TWO  175 

dismantling  the  bay-windowed  room  of  such 
things  as  were  hers.  Little  by  little  it  grew 
as  cold  and  cheerless  as  the  one  adjoining, 
now  the  personality  of  Aunt  Harriet  was 
gone  out  of  it.  What  would  become  of 
Uncle  Austen  after  both  were  gone  ? 

She  had  tried  to  force  from  him  some 
expression  of  feeling,  at  first  wistfully,  then 
determinedly.  There  is  a  chance,  had  he 
responded,  that  she  would  have  made  other 
arrangements  for  her  mother.  Then  she 
told  herself  she  did  not  care  and  went  hotly 
on  with  her  preparations. 

She  had  taken  two  bedrooms  and  a  par- 
lour at  a  hotel,  and  had  written  her  mother 
to  go  directly  there,  but  the  night  of  her  ar- 
rival the  girl  felt  she  could  not  go  to  meet  her. 
It  was  too  late  an  hour  anyhow,  she  would 
wait  until  morning,  but  she  shrank  so  from 
that  first  moment  she  could  not  sleep. 


176  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

She  and  her  uncle  met  at  the  breakfast 
table  the  next  morning.  She  made  one  or 
two  attempts  at  conversation.  "  I  go  to-day, 
Uncle  Austen,"  she  said  at  last,  and,  leaning 
forward,  pushed  a  paper  across  the  table  to 
him.  It  was  the  final  statement  of  the  house- 
hold expenditures  under  her  management. 

Her  board  from  her  first  coming  had  been 
paid  into  the  general  house  fund,  and,  ac- 
cordingly, she  had  included  against  herself 
charge  for  these  several  days  in  the  new 
month. 

Noting  it,  Austen  Blair  nodded;  it  was 
the  first  approval  accorded  her  for  some 
time. 

She  laughed.  "I  go  to-day,"  she  re- 
peated. 

Her  uncle,  who  had  risen,  put  the  paper, 
neatly  folded,  into  his  wallet,  then  crossed 
to  her  and  put  out  his  hand. 


PART   TWO  177 

"I  will  not  see  you  again  then?"  he  said, 
and  shook  hands. 

A  moment  after  she  heard  the  front  door 
close. 

There  were  the  servants  to  bid  good-by, 
and  that  being  done  there  was  no  excuse  to 
linger. 

It  was  a  warm  May  day;  the  magnolia  in 
the  yard,  the  pirus  japonicas,  the  calycan- 
thus,  the  horse  chestnuts,  were  in  bloom. 
The  lawn  was  green,  the  edges  of  the  gravel 
paths  were  newly  cut  and  trim.  Alexina,  in 
her  muslin  dress  and  Leghorn  hat,  turned 
on  the  stone  flagging  and  looked  back  at 
the  home  she  was  leaving.  Home  ? 

The  girl,  pausing  in  the  yard  of  the  big 
house,  glanced  across  the  street  to  a  shabby 
old  brick  cottage.  Her  affection  was  for  it. 

The  hotel  was  in  the  business  part  of  the 
city  near  the  river.  A  street  car  would  have 


178  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

taken  her  directly  there  but  she  walked,  as 
if  seeking  to  put  the  moment  off.  The  way 
took  her  past  the  house  furnished  and  wait- 
ing for  Aunt  Harriet  and  the  Major.  Louise 
was  sitting  on  an  up-stairs  window-sill  with 
little  Stevie,  and  caught  his  small  fist  and 
waved  it  to  her.  A  curtain  was  fluttering 
out  an  opened  window  and  a  comfortable 
looking  coloured  woman  was  sweeping  the 
pavement.  The  place  had  an  air  of  relaxa- 
tion, of  comfort,  already.  Aunt  Harriet 
was  going  to  have  a  home. 

The  arrangements  had  been  made  at  the 
hotel,  and  the  child,  for  a  very  child  she  was, 
went  in  at  the  ladies*  entrance  where  a 
sleepy  bell-boy  sat,  always  nodding,  past  the 
pillared  corridor,  on  up-stairs,  and  along  the 
crimson-carpeted  hallways.  She  was  trem- 
bling, her  throat  was  dry. 

In  the  suite  she  had  taken,  a  bedroom 


PART  TWO  179 

either  side  opened  into  a  connecting  parlour. 
It  was  the  knob  of  the  parlour  door  she 
turned  after  a  tap.  Then  she  went  in. 

"Why,  you  tall,  charming,  baby-faced  — ! 
Celeste,  Celeste,  here's  your  baby !  Come 
here  to  me,  Malise.  Why  the  child's  hands 
are  cold!" 

How  foolish  to  have  dreaded  it  so!  It 
was  all  gone  —  even  the  constraint.  The 
twelve  years  were  as  nothing.  She  was 
again  the  baby  child,  Malise,  so-called  by 
her  mother's  people. 

And  her  mother?  The  linen  pillows  on 
the  sofa  beneath  her  head  looked  cool  and 
pleasantly  rumpled,  and  the  sheer  white 
wrapper  was  fine  and  softly  laundered  as  a 
baby's.  Her  hair,  hanging  in  two  plaits 
over  the  pillows,  had  no  suggestion  of  care- 
lessness; it  looked  fascinating,  it  looked 
lovely. 


180  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

The  mother,  holding  her  daughter's 
hands,  was  gazing  up  curiously,  interested- 
ly, her  lips  parted,  as  pleased  interest  will 
part  any  child's.  There  was  contagious 
laughter  in  the  eyes,  too,  the  laugh  of  expec- 
tancy about  to  be  gratified,  as  with  children 
while  the  curtain  goes  up  on  a  new  scene. 
"You  are  as  pretty  as  you  can  be,  Malise; 
the  Blair  features  used  to  look  so  solemn  on 
a  baby!" 

"LIT  missy—" 

Alexina  looked  around.  It  was  Celeste, 
tall,  brown,  regarding  her  with  covert  eyes 
as  of  old.  Celeste  had  never  loved  her,  the 
child  had  known  that ;  her  love  belonged  to 
the  mother,  her  first  charge,  her  Southern 
born,  all  her  own.  The  father's  blood  in 
this  second  child  was  alien;  Celeste  had  re- 
sented it  as  she  had  resented  that  father  and 
all  his  kind.  She  had  been  jealous  for  the 


PART  TWO  181 

mother  against  the  father  and  child  from  the 
first. 

Alexina,  drawing  a  hand  from  her  moth- 
er's, gave  it  to  Celeste.  The  old  woman 
took  it  loosely,  then  let  it  drop.  Things 
were  to  be  as  of  old,  then,  between  them. 

The  girl  turned  back  to  her  mother. 
"But,  Molly,"  the  name  came  naturally, 
she  had  known  her  mother  by  no  other, 
"your  health,  you  know;  tell  me  about 
that." 

What  did  this  dilation  in  Molly's  eyes 
mean  ?  And  she  glanced  sidewise,  secretly, 
as  if  at  fear  of  some  dreaded  thing,  lurking. 

"Did  I  write  about  that?  Oh,  well, 
perhaps  I  was,  then,  but  not  now;  not  at  all 
now." 

The  haste  to  disclaim  was  feverish,  and 
the  look  directed  by  Celeste  at  Alexina  was 
sullen,  even  while  the  old  woman's  strong, 


182  THE   HOUSE   OF  FULFILMENT 

resistless  brown  hand  was  pushing  her  mis- 
tress back  onto  the  pillows. 

"Got  to  res'  HI'  while,  p'tite;  got  to  min' 
Celeste  an*  lay  back  an'  res'  now." 

Then  to  her  daughter,  who  suddenly  felt 
herself  a  little  compelled  creature  again,  so 
was  she  carried  into  the  past  by  the  old 
woman's  soft,  Creole  slurring:  "'Tain',  111* 
missy,  'tain'  like  Madame  Gamier  she  aire 
seeck  actual,  but  jus'  she  taire,  easy  like." 

Madame  Gamier!  That  meant  Molly! 
The  illusions  were  all  gone.  The  girl  back- 
ed from  the  couch.  Twelve  years  rolled 
between  Molly  and  herself,  years  full  of  re- 
sentment. A  slow  red  came  up  and  over 
the  daughter's  face. 

But  Molly,  back  upon  the  pillows,  gave  no 
sign.  She  flung  her  plaits  out  of  the  way 
and  slipped  her  arms  under  her  head.  There 
is  a  slenderness  that  is  not  meagreness,  but 


PART   TWO  183 

delicacy;  thus  slight,  thus  pretty,  were  Mol- 
ly's wrists.  The  arms  under  her  head  tilted 
her  face  so  the  light  fell  on  it.  It  was  a 
narrow,  piquant  face,  with  no  lines  to  mar  its 
delicacy.  The  odd  difference  in  the  eye- 
brows, which  had  fascinated  Alexina  as  a 
child,  one  arched,  one  straight,  lent  laughter 
to  it  even  in  repose.  Yet  the  mouth  droop- 
ed, like  a  child's,  with  pathos  and  appeal. 
Could  one  say  no  to  that  mouth,  it  was  so 
wistful  ?  It  was  an  alluring  face,  and  moved 
you  so  to  tenderness,  to  do  battle,  to  give  pro- 
tection, that  it  hurt. 

*  Throw  off  your  hat,  Malise,"  suggested 
Molly.  "  Celeste,  take  her  parasol  from  that 
chair.  There  is  so  much  to  hear  about.  I 
asked  la  femme  de  charge,  when  she  was  in 
this  morning,  if  she'd  ever  heard  of  the 
Blairs.  Everybody  used  to  know  every- 
thing about  everybody  when  I  was  here 


184  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

before  and  the  servants  most  of  all,  and, 
mon  Dieu,  she  knew  all  about  them.  *  Miss 
Blair  is  married,'  she  told  me.  *  I  know  that,' 
said  I,  for  you'd  mentioned  that  much  in 
your  letter,  Malise.  'She  ran  off  to  get 
married,'  said  she.  '  Oh,  hush,'  I  told  her." 

She  had  retained  her  very  colloquialisms, 
this  Molly,  too  unconscious  and  too  indolent 
to  know  she  had  them,  probably,  or  to  care. 

"  So  she  told  me  all  about  it,  how  tall,  cold, 
proper  Harriet  had  run  off  from  Blair  pro- 
prieties and  Austen,  to  marry  a  Southerner 
and  a  Catholic!  It's  as  if  the  virgin  in  mar- 
ble had  stepped  down  and  done  it!" 

Molly  was  amused.  It  narrowed  her 
eyes  till  they  laughed  through  the  lashes. 

"I  never  heard  anything  so  funny  in  my 
life,  Malise,  as  —  as  Harriet  eloping.  What 
is  it  Jean  Gamier  would  quote  from  his 
adored  Shakespeare  about  Diana  and  her 


PART   TWO  185 

icicles  ?  Make  me  stop !  It  hurts  me  —  to 
laugh.  Oh-o-h,  mammy  —  God,  mammy! " 

The  appeal  died  in  a  little  choke,  and  the 
morsel  of  handkerchief  pressed  to  her  mouth 
showed  a  spot  of  crimson,  but  Celeste  was 
already  there,  putting  Alexina  aside.  '  You 
can  ring  fo'  HI'  ice  —  yonder,"  she  told  the 
girl  jealously.  "Then,  efen  I  were  liF 
missy,  I'd  go  in  there  —  that  one  is  yo'  room 
—  an'  I'd  shet  my  do'h.  When  it's  over 
with,  p'tite  won't  want  fo'  you  to  have  been 
in  heah." 

But  pushed  into  the  adjoining  room  and 
with  the  door  shut  between,  Malise  still 
could  hear.  She  did  not  want  to  hear;  she 
tried  not  to  hear.  She  was  awed  and  fright- 
ened. 

"Am  I  going  to  die  this  time,  Celeste? 
I'm  afraid,  mammy;  my  hands  are  cold. 
Don't  rub  them  with  the  rings  on,  you  fool; 


186  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

you  hurt.  No,  no;  don't  go  away,  mam- 
my! mammy!  I  couldn't  sleep  last  night; 
that's  why  I'm  —  I'm  tired.  The  night  was 
so  long  and  I  was  afraid.  I  see  Jean  when  I 
try  to  sleep.  I  hear  him  cough.  Give  me 
something  to  make  me  sleep  —  oh,  mammy, 
give  it  to  me." 

The  girl  in  the  next  room  stooa  gazing  out 
the  window  over  the  roofs  and  chimney 
stacks  at  the  yellow  tide  of  the  river  sweep- 
ing down  towards  the  pier  bridge  spanning 
it,  but  she  was  not  seeing  it.  She  was  filled 
with  pity  and  terror. 

It  grew  quieter  in  the  next  room,  then 
still,  then  the  door  between  opened  and 
closed.  It  was  Celeste,  outwardly  unmoved 
and  taciturn. 

"Ptite's  gone  to  sleep.  Shall  I  help  lil' 
missy  unpack  her  things  ?" 


CHAPTER   SEVEN 

Summer  in  a  half-grown  Southern  city  is  full 
of  charm;  pretty  girls  in  muslin  dresses 
stroll  the  shopping  streets  and  stop  on  the 
sidewalks  to  chat  with  each  other  and  with 
callow  youths;  picnic  parties  board  the 
street  cars,  and  in  the  evenings  sounds  of 
music  and  dancing  float  out  from  open  doors 
and  windows  along  the  residence  streets. 

Alexina,  chaperoned  by  Harriet  Blair, 
would  have  found  herself  in  these  things, 
yet  never  quite  of  them. 

"Malise,"  Molly  said  quite  earnestly,  a 
day  or  so  after  her  coming,  "don't  you 
think  it's  stuffy  here?" 


188  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

It  was  stuffy;  hotel  rooms  in  summer  are 
apt  to  be;  Alexina  felt  as  apologetic  as  if 
Molly  were  the  one  who  had  given  up  a 
spacious,  comfortable  home  to  come  and 
live  in  rooms  for  her.  "I'm  sorry,"  she 
said.  She  had  explained  the  necessity  for 
it  before. 

"  I  thought  you'd  gotten  the  bank  to  take 
charge  of  your  affairs,"  Molly  reminded  her; 
"so  why  do  we  have  to  stay  ?" 

"I  have,  but  it's  a  different  thing,  very, 
from  having  Uncle  Austen,  personally  - 

She  stopped ;  it  might  seem  to  be  remind- 
ing Molly  that  she  had  caused  the  break 
with  Austen  Blair. 

But  Molly  never  took  disagreeable  things 
personally.  She  threw  her  arms  back  of 
her  head.  "Can't  you  propose  something 
to  do?"  she  entreated. 

"We    might  go  round  to    the    stores," 


PART  TWO  189 

suggested  Alexina  doubtfully.  She  hated 
stores  herself. 

Molly  brightened.  "I  need  some  sum- 
mer things." 

Alexina  agreed,  yet  she  wondered.  Seven 
trunks  can  disgorge  a  good  many  clothes; 
"mere  debris  from  the  wreckage  of  things," 
Molly  explained,  though  they  didn't  look  it. 
Yet  in  a  way  Alexina  understood.  It  wasn't 
the  actual  things  Molly  wanted;  it  was  the 
diversion,  and  so  at  the  suggestion  Molly 
cheered  up.  ;<  You  look  pretty  in  summer 
clothes,  Malise,"  she  stated  with  gracious- 
ness,  as  they  started.  On  the  way  she  went 
in  and  bought  chocolates ;  not  that  she  want- 
ed them  either  —  it  was  too  hot  for  candy, 
she  said  —  but  one  must  be  doing  some- 
thing. 

Coming  out  the  door  they  met  Georgy, 
who  promptly  stopped.  He  was  a  beauti- 


190  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

ful  youngster,  with  a  buoyant  and  splendid 
heartiness,  and  now  he  was  flushing  ruddily 
with  pleasure  up  to  his  yellow  hair. 

Alexina  blushed,  too;  she  hardly  knew 
why,  except  that  he  did,  and  told  his  name 
to  Molly,  who  regarded  him  with  smiling 
eyes  and  gave  h  m  her  hand,  whereupon  he 
blushed  still  more  and  then  suggested  that 
he  go  along  with  them. 

A  group  of  young  matrons  and  their 
daughters  stood  at  the  door  of  the  shop  to 
which  they  were  bound,  chatting  in  easy, 
warm  weather  fashion.  Alexina  knew 
them  slightly  but  Georgy  knew  them  well, 
and  they  were  greeted  with  salutations  and 
laughter. 

Molly  smiled,  too,  an  interested  smile  that 
brightened  as  she  was  introduced,  and  she 
remembered  having  known  the  mother  of 
this  one  when  she,  Molly,  had  lived  in  Louis- 


PART   TWO  191 

ville  before,  and  the  husband  of  another  one, 
and  all  the  while  she  was  letting  her  eyes 
smile  from  one  to  the  other  of  the  group,  who 
meanwhile  were  telling  Georgy  that  they 
were  planning  a  dance. 

Dance?  Molly's  eyes  grew  inquiringly 
eager.  Favors  were  they  speaking  of  ?  She 
had  a  trunk  full  of  Parisian  knick-knacks, 
she  told  them.  "Come  around  to  the 
hotel,"  she  suggested,  "all  of  you;  why  not 
now?" 

And  so  it  was  that  the  stream  of  things 
gayest  caught  Molly  and  Molly's  daughter 
into  its  swirl.  The  banks  along  the  way 
were  flowery,  the  sky  was  blue,  and  Alexina 
began  to  find  the  waters  of  dalliance  sweet. 
Hitherto  girlish  groups  had  seemed  to  make 
themselves  up  and  leave  her  out,  and 
there  always  had  been  a  disconcerting  lack 
of  things  to  talk  about  in  dressing-rooms 


192  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

and  strictly  feminine  assemblies.  Now 
she  found  herself  in  the  planning  and  the 
whirl,  happy  as  any. 

There  was  exhilaration,  too,  in  this  sud- 
den realization  of  what  an  income  meant, 
which  she  had  not  had  much  opportunity  of 
learning  before,  and  these  days  she  laughed 
out  of  very  exuberance  and  sudden  joy  in 
living. 

"It  seems  as  if  I  didn't  really  know  you, 
sometimes,"  said  the  literal  Georgy,  out 
calling  with  her  one  evening.  "It  makes 
you  awful  pretty,  you  know,  to  be  jolly  this 
way,"  which  was  meant  to  be  more  compli- 
mentary than  it  sounded. 

They  were  stepping  up  on  the  porch  of  the 
house  to  which  they  were  bound.  Alexina 
laughed  and  caught  a  handful  of  rose  petals 
from  a  blossoming  vine  clambering  the  post 
and  cast  them  on  Georgy. 


PART   TWO  193 

There  were  other  swains  than  Georgy 
these  days,  too,  and  not  all  of  them  were 
youths,  either,  not  that  it  mattered  in  the 
least  who  they  were;  for  in  the  beginning 
it  is  the  homage,  not  the  individual,  that 
counts. 

She  hung  over  the  offerings  which  came  to 
her  from  them  with  a  rapture  which  was 
more  than  any  mere  joy;  it  was  relief.  Sup- 
pose such  things  had  been  denied  her? 
There  are  maidens,  worthy  maidens,  who 
never  know  them,  and  so  Alexina  blushed 
divinely  with  relief.  Roses  to  her! 

And  Molly,  watching,  would  grow  peev- 
ish —  not  over  the  flowers ;  Molly  was  too 
sure  of  her  own  charm  for  that.  Alexina 
really  did  not  know  what  it  was  about,  and 
she  did  not  believe  Molly  quite  knew  herself. 

There  was  a  lazy-eyed  personage  the 
young  people  called  Mr.  Allie.  Their 


194  THE   HOUSE    OF   FULFILMENT 

mothers  had  called  him  Mr.  Randall,  but 
then  he  had  been  the  contemporary  of  the 
mothers. 

No  daughter  of  these  bygone  belles  was 
secure  in  her  place  to-day  until  the  seal  of 
Mr.  Allie's  half-serious,  half-lazy  approval 
was  upon  her,  or  so  the  mothers  and  the 
daughters  felt.  Mr.  Allie  was  perennial, 
indolently  handsome,  an  idler  in  the  gay 
little  world,  yet  somehow  one  believed  he 
could  have  gone  at  life  in  earnest  had  there 
been  need. 

He,  too,  sent  roses  to  Alexina,  and  flowers 
from  him  meant  something  subtly  flattering, 
and  he  came  strolling  around  at  places  and 
sat  down  by  her,  saying  pretty  things  to  make 
her  blush,  apparently  to  watch  her  doing  it. 
Not  that  she  minded  as  much  as  she  wor- 
ried, because  she  felt  she  ought  to  mind, 
and  in  her  heart  she  knew  she  didn't  really. 


PART   TWO  195 

She  had  gone  out  with  him  half  a  dozen 
times  perhaps,  when,  one  evening  at  a  dance, 
Mr.  Allie,  seeking,  found  her  at  the  far  end 
of  a  veranda  where  the  side  steps  went  down 
to  the  gravel.  She  and  Georgy  were  sitting 
there  together.  Georgy  was  telling  her  of 
his  aspirations  and,  in  passing,  dwelling  on 
the  lack  of  any  civic  spirit  in  the  town,  the 
inference  seeming  to  be  that  Georgy,  modest 
as  he  was,  some  day  himself  meant  to  sup- 
ply it. 

Mr.  Allie  told  Georgy  that  a  waiting  dam- 
sel was  expecting  him,  then  took  Georgy's 
place.  He  did  not  speak  for  a  while,  and 
Alexina  never  was  talkative. 

"Would  you  rather  go  in  and  dance?"  at 
last  he  asked. 

"  Why,"  said  Alexina;  " no."  Which  was 
not  quite  true  for  she  loved  to  dance  these 
days.  She  used  to  be  afraid  she  was  not 


196  THE    HOUSE    OF   FULFILMENT 

going  to  have  a  successive  partner  and  it 
marred  the  full  enjoyment  of  the  one  she 
had,  but  now  - 

Still,  any  one  would  be  flattered  to  have 
Mr.  Allie  asking,  so  she  said  no. 

"Then  we'll  stay,"  he  said;  which  was 
not  brilliant,  to  be  sure,  but  it  was  the  way 
in  which  Mr.  Allie  said  things  which  made 
them  seem  pregnant  of  many  meanings. 

After  that  neither  of  them  spoke,  yet 
Alexina's  pulses  began  to  beat.  The  big 
side  yard  upon  which  the  steps  descended 
was  flooded  with  moonlight,  and  a  mocking- 
bird was  sending  forth  a  trial  note  or  two. 
And  it  was  June. 

"For  you  know,  really,  you're  the  very 
dearest  of  them  all,"  said  Mr.  Allie,  with  soft 
decision,  as  if  he  had  been  arguing  about  it. 

There  was  not  a  thing  to  say,  and  she 
could  not  have  said  it  if  there  had  been. 


PART  TWO  197 

"And  I've  known  a  good  many,"  con- 
tinued Mr.  Allie,  which  probably  was  true, 
only  Mr.  Allie  knew  how  true;  "but  I've 
never  felt  just  this  way  about  any  of  them 
before." 

Then  they  sat  very  still,  and  the  bird  note 
rose  and  fell. 

"Maybe  you'd  rather  go  in,"  said  Mr. 
Allie  as  the  music  began  again.  Was  it 
hurt  in  his  tone  ? 

"Oh,"  said  Alexina,  "no." 

Mr.  Allie  picked  up  the  end  of  the  scarf 
which  had  fallen  to  the  steps  and  put  it  about 
her  shoulders  again.  It  brought  his  face 
around  where  he  could  see  hers.  Was  he 
laughing?  Or  were  his  eyes  full  of  re- 
proach ?  For  what  ?  He  did  not  look  a  bit 
like  a  contemporary  of  anybody's  mother. 
Yet  perhaps  the  moustache  that  drooped 
over  the  mouth  did  hide  —  lines,  and  the  lazy 


198  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

eyes  sometimes  did  look  tired.  Youth  has 
its  dreams,  vague,  secret,  yet  the  Prince  of 
the  dreams  should  be  no  Mr.  Allie  with  eyes 
that  look  weary  and  tired. 

"If  I  thought,"  said  Mr.  Allie  softly,  oh, 
so  softly;  "if  I  thought  that  you  could 
care?" 

"  Oh,"  said  Alexina,  "  no,  I  couldn't." 

She  sobbed.     It  seemed  cruel  to  Mr.  Allie. 

Then  they  talked  it  over,  he  so  gently,  she 
with  self-reproach  and  little  chokes  against 
tears.  He  even  held  her  hand,  she  too 
tender-hearted  to  know  how  to  take  it  away, 
though  the  remorse  eating  into  her  heart  was 
forgotten  somewhat  in  the  glow,  the  wonder 
that  this  thing,  this  sad  but  beautiful  thing 
should  come  to  her.  Presently  he  took 
her  in.  The  rest  of  the  evening  sped  hazily. 
Going  home,  she  talked  to  Mr.  Allie  and 
Molly  as  in  a  dream. 


PART  TWO  199 

Reaching  the  hotel,  and  in  their  own 
apartment,  Alexina  sank  down  on  the  sofa, 
her  wrap  and  fan  falling  unobserved,  and 
sat,  chin  on  palm,  shyly  remembering, 
shrinking  a  little,  and  blushing.  Suddenly 
conscious,  she  turned  and  found  Molly  in 
her  doorway  between,  undressing,  and  look- 
ing at  her  with  knowledge  and  with  laugh- 
ter. She  had  forgotten  Molly,  who  had 
been  rummaging  and  had  brought  out 
some  olives  and  crackers  and  wine.  Molly 
lunched  at  all  unheard-of  hours. 

Alexina  sprang  up.  She  turned  white, 
then  scarlet. 

"Be  innocent  of  the  knowledge,  dearest 
chuck/  Jean  Gamier  would  say,"  Molly  be- 
gan, unloosing  her  waist  and  laughing  again. 
"Mais  non,  mon  enfant,  you  take  these 
things  too  seriously;  it  is  time  you  under- 
stood. He  has  said  as  much  to  every  pretty 


200  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

girl  there,  one  time  and  another,  and  to  most 
of  their  mothers  before  them,  only  they  all 
understood.  It's  very  charming  in  you,  of 
course,  right  now,  and  to  a  man  like  him, 
irresistible  but,  still  -  -  Malise  — 

Alexina  looked  at  Molly.  Then  up  welled 
a  red  that  rose  to  her  hair  and  spread 
down  her  throat  and  over  her  bare  young 
shoulders.  She  would  never  misunder- 
stand again.  It  is  a  cruel  thing,  the  hotness 
of  shame.  But  Molly  was  staring.  Malise 
was  beautiful  with  her  head  so  proudly  up 
and  her  cheeks  naming. 

There  was  more  to  understand.  They 
were  a  gay  crowd,  the  young  people  and  their 
elders  with  whom  Molly  and  Alexina  and 
Georgy  were  going.  Things  came  to  Alex- 
ina slowly. 

"It  isn't  just  nice,"  she  told  Molly 
anxiously,  an  evening  at  the  Willy  Fields'; 


PART   TWO  201 

"  Georgy  says  you've  all  been  in  the  pantry 
opening  more  champagne.  I'm  sure  they're 
acting  like  there's  been  enough,  and  he 
thinks,  too,  we  ought  to  go  home." 

"Good  Lord,"  said  Molly.  She  looked 
so  slender,  so  childishly  innocent  standing 
there  where  the  daughter  had  drawn  her 
aside,  one  couldn't  believe  she  had  said  it. 
"  This  is  the  way  you  used  to  go  on  when  you 
were  a  child.  One  would  think  you'd  had 
your  fill  of  what  people  ought  to  do,  living 
with  the  Blairs." 

Alexina  looked  at  her.  That  Molly 
should  dare  allude  to  that  past  this  way! 
Then  she  went  and  found  her  mother's  wrap 
and  brought  it. 

"  Put  it  on,"  she  said. 

Molly  laughed  rebelliously,  then  waver- 


We  are  going  home,"  said  the  daughter. 


202  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

Molly  essayed  to  put  it  on  but  didn't  seem 
able  to  find  the  hooks,  and  Alexina,  harden- 
ing her  heart,  would  not  help  her,  but  went 
to  find  Georgy.  He  was  looking  stern  him- 
self, and  forlorn  and  young,  and  the  fact 
that  she  knew  why  did  not  serve  to  make 
Alexina  happier. 

The  cars  had  stopped  running  and  they 
walked  home,  leaving  hilarity  behind  them. 
Molly  was  acting  stubbornly,  her  tones  were 
injured,  and  her  talk  incessant.  Alexina 
couldn't  make  her  stop. 

"Jean  was  just  such  another  clog  as  Ma- 
lise,"  she  told  Georgy.  "He  was  forever 
harping  about  proprieties,  and  he  wore  me 
out  trying  to  make  me  tie  my  money  up; 
Malise  isn't  stingy,  I'll  say  that,  though  she 
might  have  been  —  she's  a  Blair.  Jean 
shivered  over  spending  money.  And  after 
there  wasn't  any  left,  he  used  to  sit  and 


PART  TWO  203 

cough  and  cry  over  his  Shakespeare  about 
it.  He  had  thought  he  was  going  to  be  a 
great  poet  once,  himself ,  Jean  had." 

In  the  light  of  the  setting  moon  one  could 
see  Molly's  childlike  face;  and  her  voice, 
with  its  upward  cadence,  was  more  plain- 
tive than  the  face.  The  very  look  and  the 
sound  of  her  were  sweet,  seductively  sweet. 

"  He  liked  to  believe  himself  a  Gascon,  too, 
Jean  did,  and  he  loved  his  Villon  too.  He 
wasn't  well  ever;  he  couldn't  always  breathe, 
Jean  couldn't,  but,  vraiment,  he  could  swag- 
ger as  well  as  any." 

The  night  was  still,  the  streets  asleep. 
Nearing  the  hotel  now,  the  way  led  past 
blocks  of  warehouses  and  wholesale  estab- 
lishments. Molly  stumbled  over  a  grating. 
Georgy  steadied  her.  They  went  on,  their 
footsteps  echoing  up  from  the  flagging  as 
from  a  vault. 


204  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

"I'm  cold,"  complained  Molly,  "and," 
querulously,  "you  know,  Malise,  it  will 
make  me  cough  if  I  take  cold.  Jean 
coughed.  After  he  coughed  for  a  year  and 
the  money  was  gone,  he  raised  more  on  our 
things.  Then  they  came  and  seized  them, 
except  my  trunks;  Jean  had  sent  those 
away.  I  was  sick,  too;  I  took  the  cough 
from  Jean,  and  I  was  afraid  after  I  heard 
one  could  take  it,  so  he  made  me  come  away. 
Celeste  had  some  money.  He  made  us 
come;  he  said  it  would  be  easier  to  know  I 
was  over  here,  and  it  would  be  better  for 
him  at  the  hospital  -  • '  les  soeurs  sont 
bonnes,'  Jean  said  over  and  over." 

Alexina  was  hearing  it  for  the  first  time. 
People  like  Molly  supply  no  background, 
the  present  is  the  only  moment,  and  Alexina 
was  not  one  to  ask. 

At  the  hotel  entrance,  in  the  ladies'  de- 


PART   TWO  205 

serted  hallway,  even  the  nodding  bell-boy 
gone,  Georgy  paused.  Molly  went  and  sat 
down  in  a  chair  against  the  wall.  She 
laughed  unsteadily,  though  there  was  noth- 
ing to  laugh  about.  Her  lids  were  batting 
and  fluttering  like  a  sleepy  child's.  "I 
thought  you  said  it  was  late,  Malise,"  she 
remarked. 

"Wait,"  entreated  Georgy  of  Alexina,  and 
squared  himself  between  her  and  her  mother. 
He  was  a  dear,  handsome  boy.  He  gazed 
pleadingly  at  the  tall,  fair-haired  girl  whose 
eyes  were  meeting  his  so  apologetically. 

;*You  said  to  me  there,  to-night,  you 
couldn't  care  for  me  that  way,"  he  told  her, 
"  but  couldn't  you  marry  me  anyhow,  Alex- 
ina, and  we'll  take  care  of  her  together  ?" 

For  he  thought  she  knew  what  he  did. 
Her  eyes,  which  had  lowered,  lifted  again, 
doubtfully,  wistfully.  Was  she  wishing  she 


206  THE   HOUSE   OF  FULFILMENT 

could?  They  met  his.  Perhaps  his  were 
too  humble. 

A  shiver  went  through  the  girl.  Then 
came  a  sobbing  utterance.  "I  can't,  I 
can't;  but  oh,  if  you  only  knew  how  I  wish 
I  could!" 

She  broke  down  in  tears.  "  Don't  be  mad 
with  me,  Georgy." 

"  Oh,"  said  Georgy,  preparing  to  go,  "it's 
not  that  I'm  mad.  I  reckon  you  don't  un- 
derstand these  things  yet,  Alexina." 


CHAPTER   EIGHT 

It  seemed  all  at  once  as  if  some  wilful  per- 
versity seized  Molly;  at  home  she  was  so 
petulant  Alexina  dared  not  cross  her,  for  to 
anger  her  was  to  make  her  cough;  abroad 
she  was  gayer  than  any,  almost  to  reckless- 
ness. Celeste,  taciturn  and  secretive,  kept 
herself  between  mother  and  daughter  insis- 
tently, and  often  the  door  to  Molly's  room 
was  locked  until  afternoon.  Mrs.  Gamier 
must  not  be  disturbed,  she  said. 

One  of  these  times,  a  day  in  late  July, 
Alexina  went  out  to  the  Carringfords'. 
Emily  knew  most  of  the  comings  and  goings 
of  Alexina  and  her  mother.  In  her  heart 


208  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

probably  she  was  envious,  though  to  Alexina 
she  was  concerned. 

'  *  That  picnic  of  last  week  is  being  talked 
about,  Alexina,"  she  said. 

Alexina  flushed,  but  she  was  honest.  "  It 
ought  to  be,"  she  said.  Gaiety  can  tread 
close  upon  the  heels  of  recklessness.  But  if 
Molly  went  the  daughter  had  to  go,  for  this 
very  reason,  though  she  could  not  tell  Emily 
this. 

So  she  spoke  of  other  things.  "Do  you 
know  anything  of  Uncle  Austen?"  she 
asked.  "Is  he  still  taking  his  meals  down- 
town and  sleeping  at  the  house  ?" 

Emily  looked  conscious.  'Yes,"  she 
said,  "  I  think  he  is." 

Somehow  Alexina  felt  that  Emily  not  only 
knew  but  wanted  it  to  be  felt  that  she  knew. 
Then  why  hesitate  and  say  only  that  she 
thought  so  ? 


PART   TWO  209 

"How's  Garrard?"  Alexina  asked  sud- 
denly. Garrard  was  young  Doctor  Ran- 
some.  Emily  flushed  a  little,  but  she  an- 
swered unconcernedly,  "Well,  enough,  I 
reckon." 

On  Alexina's  return  to  the  hotel,  the  clerk 
stopped  her  in  the  corridor,  looking  a  little 
embarrassed  under  the  clear,  surprised  gaze 
of  the  young  lady.  "  It's  about  a  little  mat- 
ter with  Mrs.  Gamier;  it's  been  running  two 
months  now." 

A  moment  after,  as  she  went  on  blindly 
up  the  stairs,  a  folded  paper  in  her  hand, 
she  understood;  understood  what  Georgy 
had  offered  to  share  with  her,  what  the  taci- 
turn secretiveness  of  Celeste  meant.  She 
went  in  through  the  parlor  to  her  mother's 
room,  from  which  of  late  she  had  been  so 
much  shut  out. 

"  Molly,"   she  said,   her  voice  sounding 


210  THE    HOUSE    OF   FULFILMENT 

strange  to  herself,  as  she  held  out  the  paper 
open. 

Molly,  risen  on  her  pillow,  looked  at  it,  at 
her,  her  eyes  growing  big.  She  was  fright- 
ened, and  cowered  a  little,  crumpling  some 
letters  in  her  lap. 

"  Don't  look  at  me  like  that,  Malise,"  she 
said.  "I've  some  of  the  money  you  gave 
me  left  —  I'll  help  to  pay  it." 

That  she  was  afraid  only  because  of  the 
bill! 

"  Oh  -  "  Alexina  breathed  it  rather  than 
uttered  it. 

Molly,  risen  from  her  elbow  to  sitting  pos- 
ture, was  looking  at  her  with  big,  miserable 
eyes,  her  throat,  so  slight  and  pretty,  swell- 
ing with  the  sobs  coming. 

But  the  other  came  first,  and  with  it  came 
the  terror.  "Malise,  Malise,  hold  me;  hold 
me.  I'm  afraid!" 


PART  TWO  211 

Celeste  was  out. 

Alexina,  holding  her  mother,  could  reach 
the  bell,  and  rang  it,  again  and  again. 

"Oh,"  she  said  to  the  boy  when  he 
came;  " get  a  doctor." 

"  What  one  ?  "  he  asked. 

Alexina  remembered  Dr.  Ransome. 

Then  she  sat  and  fed  ice  to  Molly  and 
tried  to  keep  her  still.  It  is  a  fearful  thing 
to  feel  the  close,  clinging  touch  of  a  person 
we  are  shrinking  from.  It  was  a  hot,  drow- 
sy afternoon.  The  clock  on  the  parlour  man- 
tel ticked  with  maddening  reiteration.  It 
seemed  hours  before  Dr.  Ransome  came. 
Then  a  moment  later  Celeste  returned. 
Molly  flung  her  arms  out  to  the  old  woman. 

"He's  dead,  mammy,"  she  wailed; 
"Jean's  dead;  the  letters  came  after  you 
went  —  and  I'm  afraid,  I'm  afraid  of  it,  I'm 
afraid  to  die!" 


212  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

It  was  to  Celeste  Molly  had  to  tell  it. 
The  daughter  listened  with  a  sudden  re- 
sentment towards  Celeste. 

Molly  was  not  going  to  be  better  right  at 
once,  and  Alexina  and  Dr.  Garrard  Ran- 
some  had  many  opportunities  for  talk.  She 
stopped  him  in  the  parlour,  as  he  was  going, 
one  morning.  It  had  been  on  her  mind  for 
a  long  time  to  ask  him  something.  "It's 
odd,  your  name  being  Ransome,"  she  said. 
*'  Mrs.  Leroy,  who  used  to  live  where  you  do, 
had  been  a  Miss  Ransome." 

"She's  my  cousin  Charlotte,"  said  the 
young  fellow;  "that's  how  my  mother  came 
to  fancy  living  where  we  do,  when  we  came 
down  from  Woodford  to  Louisville.  She 
used  to  visit  the  Leroys  there  you  see." 

"  Oh,"  said  Alexina,  "  really  ?  They  were 
very  good  to  me." 

The  blue  eyes  of  the  doctor  were  regard- 


PART  TWO  213 

ing  her  intently,  but  as  if  thought  were  con- 
centrated elsewhere.  "I  wonder  if  it  was 
you  Cousin  Charlotte  meant  ?  I  was  down 
there  two  winters  ago  for  a  month.  They 
live  in  Florida,  at  a  place  called  Aden." 

"Yes,"  said  Alexina,  "Aden." 

"And  she  asked  me  about  some  young 
girl  who,  she  said,  lived  across  from  the  cot- 
tage. Of  course  I  didn't  know." 

"I  wasn't  there  then,"  said  Alexina;  "I 
was  at  school.  They  were  good  to  me;  are 
they  well  —  and  happy?"  The  eagerness 
was  good  to  see,  so  dejected  had  the  girl 
seemed  of  late. 

Well,  yes,  or  were  when  mother  last  heard. 
Happy,  too,  I  reckon,  as  it's  counted  with  us 
poor  families  used  to  better  things." 

"Tell  me  about  them,  if  you  don't  mind. 
They  were  the  best  friends  I  ever  had." 

"  Well,"  he  said,  looking  rather  helpless  in 


214  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

the  undertaking,  "there  isn't  much  to  tell. 
They're  getting  along.  The  Captain  was 
book-keeper  for  a  steamboat  line  down 
there,  went  home  every  week,  but,  somehow, 
a  year  ago,  they  dropped  him;  he's  getting 
old,  the  Captain  is." 

14  Yes,  he  must  be.     And  Mrs.  Leroy  ?" 

"Cousin  Charlotte?  Well,  she's  Cousin 
Charlotte.  Some  ways  she's  a  real  child 
about  things  and  mighty  helpless  when  it 
comes  to  managing,  but  she  never  thinks 
about  repining,  and  it's  funny  how  she'll  do 
whatever  King  tells  her." 

"And  he?" 

"  King  ?  Oh,  he's  all  right.  Queer  fellow 
though,  some  ways,  imperturbable  as  a 
young  owl.  Best  poker  player  down  there, 
and  that's  saying  something.  It's  motley, 
Aden  is,  like  all  those  small  towns  since  the 
railroad  went  through  'em." 


PART   TWO  215 

The  young  man  happening  to  glance  at 
Miss  Alexina,  saw  that  he  had  said  some- 
thing wrong.  He  was  the  only  child  of  his 
mother  and  so  knew  how  ladies  feel  on 
certain  subjects.  Yet,  on  the  other  hand, 
Miss  Alexina  adored  Major  Rathbone,  and 
the  Major's  poker  record,  while  possibly  of 
a  more  local  character,  was  scarcely  less  cel- 
ebrated than  his  guerrilla  past.  Still,  ladies 
are  expected  to  be  inconsistent. 

"I  shouldn't  have  told  that,  I  reckon," 
he  remarked;  "you  all  don't  see  these  things 
as  we  do.  He's  a  fine  fellow,  King  is.  He's 
a  great  shot,  too,"  cheerfully;  "I  went  on  a 
week's  hunt  down  in  the  glades  with  him. 
King's  all  right." 

Maybe  he  was,  but  it  sounded  as  though 
he  was  trifling.  "Hasn't  he  a  business?" 
she  asked  with  condemning  brevity. 

"  I  don't  know  about  calling  it  a  business," 


216  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

said  William  Leroy's  cousin;  "I  know  he'g 
the  busiest.  It's  a  big  old  place,  you  see, 
the  grove  they  own,  and  he's  reclaiming 
it.  There's  just  one  subject  he's  discursive 
on,  and  that's  the  best  fertilizer  for  young 
orange  trees." 

Somehow  William  Leroy  did  not  shine 
against  this  background  as  his  well-intend- 
ing cousin  meant  he  should.  "  And  they're 
poor,  Mrs.  Leroy  and  the  Captain?"  asked 
Miss  Blair. 

"Well,"  admitted  Garrard,  "they  aren't 
rich." 

The  girl  sat  thinking.  "  I'm  going  down 
there,"  she  said  suddenly.  "Is  there  a 
hotel  ?  There  is  ?  Then  I'm  going  to  take 
Molly  and  go  down  to  see  them.  There's 
something  I  want  to  tell  Mrs.  Leroy  and  the 
Captain." 

"As  good  a  place  as  any,"  agreed  Dr. 


PART   TWO  217 

Garrard.     "I  told  you  at  the  start  Mrs. 
Gamier  must  not  try  a  winter  here." 

"We'll  go,"  declared  Alexina,  then 
stopped.  Maybe  they  would  not  be  glad  to 
see  her.  "  But  don't  mention  the  possibility 
if  you  should  be  writing,"  she  begged; 
"  don't  mention  knowing  me  —  please.  I 
-  I'd  like  to  discover  it  all  for  myself." 

After  he  had  gone  she  went  to  the  piano, 
near  the  window  looking  out  over  the  ware- 
house roofs  to  the  river,  and,  softly  fingering 
some  little  melody,  sat  thinking. 

There  was  a  tap  and  Alexina  turned  on 
the  piano  stool  as  Emily  Carringford  came 
in.  Somehow  Emily,  so  prettily,  daintily 
charming  in  her  fresh  white  dress,  made 
Alexina  cross.  She  felt  wilted  and  jaded, 
and  who  cared  if  she  did?  That  her  pres- 
ent state  was  brought  about  by  her  own 
choosing  only  made  her  crosser. 


218  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

What  was  it  in  Emily's  manner?  Had 
she  grown  more  beautiful  in  a  night  ?  She 
dropped  into  a  chair,  and,  holding  her 
parasol  by  either  end  across  her  knee,  looked 
over  at  Alexina  on  the  stool,  and,  looking, 
laughed.  It  was  a  laugh  made  of  embar- 
rassment and  complacency,  half  shy,  half 
bold. 

'Your  Uncle  Austen  last  night  asked  me 
to  marry  him,  Alexina,"  she  said. 

"Emily—  "  Alexina  sprang  from  the  stool 
and  stood  with  apprehension  rushing  to  her 
face  in  rising  colour  and  dilated  gaze.  "  Oh 
-Emily!" 

Was  it  foreboding  in  her  eyes  as  they 
swept  Emily's  girlish  loveliness  ? 

"  He  didn't  seem  to  mind  my  being  poor," 
said  Emily;  "  he  said  it  was  my  practical  and 
praiseworthy  way  of  going  to  work  that 
made  him  first  —  oh,  Alexina,"  she  coloured 


PART   TWO  219 

and  looked  at  the  other,  "he  didn't  even 
mind  our  little  house  —  and  mother  doing 
the  work." 

A  sort  of  rage  against  Emily  seized  Alex- 
ina.  She  stamped  her  foot. 

"Oh,"  she  cried,  "why  shouldn't  he  the 
rather  go  down  on  his  unbending  knees  in 
gratitude  that  you'll  even  listen?  You're 
twenty-one  and  he's  fifty-one.  You  have 
everything,  you're  lovely,  you've  your  voice, 
you  haven't  begun  to  live  yet  —  oh,  I  know 
he's  my  uncle,  and  I  remember  all  he's  done 
for  me,  but  I've  known  him  years,  Emily, 
years,  and  I've  never  seen  Uncle  Austen 
laugh  once." 

What  on  earth  has  laughing  to  do  with  it  ? 
Alexina  always  was  queer.  This  from 
Emily.  Not  that  she  said  it,  except  in  puz- 
zled, uncomprehending  stare  at  Alexina,  the 
while  she  returned  to  what  she  had  come 


220  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

to  communicate.  "  We're  going  to  be  mar- 
ried the  first  day  of  October,"  she  said.  "  Mr. 
Blair  has  to  go  East  on  some  business  then." 

Alexina  drew  herself  together  with  a  laugh. 
What  was  the  use  —  yet  she  could  not  divest 
herself  of  a  responsibility. 

She  looked  at  Emily,  who  was  looking  at 
her.  Their  eyes  met.  Alexina  looked  away. 

" Emily,"  she  said,  "there's  a  thing  "- 
it  took  effort  to  say  it  — "  a  thing  maybe  you 
haven't  thought  of.  It  came  to  Aunt  Har- 
riet; it  comes  to  everybody,  I  feel  sure. 
Won't  you  be  cutting  yourself  off  from  any 
right  to  it?"  The  red  was  waving  up  to 
Alexina's  very  hair. 

Emily  showed  no  resentment  at  this  im- 
plication which  both  seemed  to  take  for 
granted,  but  then  she  was  not  following  Al- 
exina very  closely,  her  own  thoughts  being 
absorbing.  "The  wedding  will  have  to  be 


PART  TWO  221 

in  our  little  house,"  she  said,  "so  it  won't 
make  much  difference  about  the  dress;  no- 
body'll  be  there.  But  for  the  rest,  I'm  go- 
ing to  have  some  clothes.  I  told  mother 
and  father  and  grandfather  so  this  morning." 

Alexina  went  over  and  seized  the  other's 
hands  as  children  do.  A  softer  feeling  had 
come  over  her.  Perhaps  Emily  was  doing 
this  thing  to  help  her  people.  Besides, 
she  and  Emily  used  to  weave  wonderful 
garbs  in  bygone  days,  for  the  wearing  to  the 
Prince's  ball.  To  be  sure,  one  never  had 
pictured  an  Uncle  Austen  as  the  possible 
Prince,  but  still  Emily  should  have  them, 
if  she  wanted  them. 

Alexina's  gaze  fell  upon  a  flower  lying  on 
the  floor,  which  had  dropped  out  of  Garrard 
Ransome's  buttonhole.  The  boy  loved 
flowers  as  most  men  from  the  blue  grass 
country  do,  and  the  cottage  yard  was  a  wil- 


222  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

derness  of  them.  She  had  almost  forgotten 
Garrard's  share  in  this.  She  picked  the 
flower  up  and  handed  it  to  Emily.  "Dr. 
Ransome  has  been  here,"  she  said,  feeling 
treacherous  —  for  the  other  man,  after  all, 
was  her  uncle. 

Emily  took  it,  and  laid  it  against  the  lace 
of  her  parasol,  this  way  and  that. 

"  I've  always,  as  far  back  as  I  can  remem- 
ber, meant  to  be  somebody,  something," 
said  Emily.  She  said  it  without  emotion,  as 
one  states  a  fact.  Then  she  rose  and  picked 
up  her  glove.  "  Sometimes  I've  thrown  my 
arms  out  and  felt  I  could  scream,  it  all  has 
seemed  so  poor  and  crowded  and  hateful  to 
me,"  which  was  large  unburdening  of  self 
for  Emily.  Then  she  went.  At  the  door 
she  laid  the  flower  on  a  chair. 

The  three  weeks  of  Molly's  illness  brought 
it  to  the  end  of  August,  and,  as  she  conva- 


PART   TWO  223 

lesced,  Alexina  began  to  plan  for  Aden.  In 
the  midst  of  her  preparations  the  Major  and 
Harriet  returned. 

She  went  out  to  the  house  the  morning  of 
their  arrival.  The  luggage  was  being  un- 
loaded at  the  curb  as  she  reached  the  gate, 
and,  hearing  voices  as  she  stepped  on  the 
porch,  she  looked  in  at  the  parlour  window. 
Harriet,  her  hat  yet  on,  was  bending  her 
head  that  little  Stevie,  urged  by  his  mother, 
might  kiss  her.  The  baby  was  no  shyer 
about  it  than  the  woman,  yet  the  woman 
smiled  as  the  baby's  lips  touched  her  face. 

As  she  rose  she  saw  Alexina  and  came  to 
the  door  to  meet  her.  She  kissed  the  girl 
almost  with  embarrassment,  yet  kept  hold 
of  her  hands,  while  suddenly  her  eyes  filled 
with  something  she  tried  to  laugh  away. 

"  I  had  your  letter,"  she  was  saying,  "  and 
resent  it,  too,  that  you  are  going,  and  so  does 


224  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

Stephen."  Her  face  changed,  her  voice 
grew  hesitant,  hurried.  "He's  never  going 
to  be  better  than  now"  -  was  it  a  sob  ?  - 
"  but  since  I  may  have  him,  may  keep  him, 
and  he  is  willing  now  to  live  so  for  me, 
though  not  at  first,  not  at  first  -  Oh, 
Alexina,  it  has  been  bitter! " 

Alexina  followed  her  into  the  parlour.  The 
Major  was  there  in  a  wheeled  chair,  the 
babies  afar  off,  refusing  to  obey  the  maternal 
pokes  and  pushes  to  go  to  him,  and  regard- 
ing him  and  his  wheeled  affair  with  furtive, 
wide-eyed  suspicion.  The  eyes  of  the  Major 
were  full  of  the  humour  of  it. 

"Now  had  I  been  a  gamboling  satyr  on 
hoofs  they  would  have  accepted  me  at  once," 
he  assured  Alexina.  "It's  this  mingling  of 
the  familiar  with  the  unnatural— 

He  was  holding  the  girl's  hand  while  he 
spoke  and  looking  up  keenly  at  her  pretty, 


PART   TWO  22.5 

tired  face.  There  had  been  enough  in  her 
letters  for  them  to  have  divined  something 
of  her  trouble. 

"To  some  it  comes  early,  to  others  late, 
Alexina,"  he  said  quite  gently.  He  had 
noted  the  signs  —  the  violet  shadows  be- 
neath the  baffled  young  eyes,  the  hint  of  the 
tragedy  in  their  depths. 

Alexina  sat  down  suddenly  and,  leaning 
her  face  on  the  arm  of  the  wheeled  chair,  be- 
gan to  cry,  not  that  she  meant  to  do  it  at  all. 

Time  was  when  Harriet  would  have  been 
at  a  loss,  even  now  she  was  embarrassed, 
though  she  hovered  over  the  girl,  anxious 
and  solicitous,  and  even  touched  the  pretty, 
shining  hair  with  her  hand. 

"Let  her  alone:  let  her  cry  it  out,"  said 
the  Major. 

Alexina,  groping  for  his  hand,  held  to  it 
like  a  very  child  and  cried  on. 


PART  THREE 

"Joy  will  be  part  of  the  Kingdom  of  God." 

RENAN 


CHAPTER   ONE 

Immediately  after  the  wedding  Alexina  and 
Molly  went  South.  Molly  turned  petulant 
at  sight  of  Aden  and  Alexina  could  not  blame 
her;  indeed,  she  and  Celeste  were  of  a  mind 
with  her  as  they  drove  from  the  station  to  the 
hotel. 

The  horses  ploughed  through  loose,  grey- 
ish sand,  the  sidewalks  along  the  street,  os- 
tensibly the  business  thoroughfare,  were  of 
board,  not  in  the  best  of  repair,  and  the  sky- 
line of  the  street  was  varied  according  as  the 
frame  stores  had  or  did  not  have  a  sham  front 
simulating  a  second  story.  Men  sat  on  tilted 
chairs  beneath  awnings  along  the  way  and 


280  THE   HOUSE    OF   FULFILMENT 

stared  at  the  occupants  of  the  carriage  as  it 
passed.  It  was  mid-afternoon,  which,  in 
Aden,  seemed  to  be  a  glaring,  shadeless  hour 
and,  but  for  these  occasional  somnolent 
starers,  a  deserted  one.  Yet  people  lived 
here,  existed,  spent  their  lives  in  this  crude, 
poor  hideousness,  this  mean  newness;  the 
Leroys  lived  here!  And  that  their  son 
would  let  them,  would  remain  himself ! 

"What  did  we  come  for  anyhow?"  quer- 
ied Molly.  "  The  world  is  full  of  charming 
places.  You  do  adopt  the  queerest  notions, 
Malise." 

Malise  sat  convicted.  It  had  sounded  so 
alluring,  so  suggestive  of  charm  and  lan- 
guor; the  very  name  of  Aden  had  breathed  a 
sort  of  magic. 

And  Alexina  had  come,  too,  buoyed  up  by 
a  large  and  epic  idea  of  restitution.  How 
foolish,  how  young,  how  almost  insulting 


PART  THREE  281 

from  the  Leroys'  standpoint  it  suddenly 
seemed. 

"  We  spent  two  winters  in  Italy,  Jean  and 
I,  and  one  in  Algiers,"  Molly  was  saying 
plaintively.  "  Heavens,  Malise,  they're  build- 
ing that  house  on  stilts,  right  over  a  sinkr 
hole  of  tin  cans." 

For  that  matter  there  were  tin  cans  every- 
where. It  was  most  depressing. 

"Even  Louisville  was  better  than  this," 
said  Molly  grudgingly.  "  Don't  took  so  re^ 
signed,  Malise;  it's  not  becoming." 

They  turned  a  corner  and  the  driver 
stopped  before  a  long,  two-storied  building, 
painted  white,  which  proved  to  be  the  hotel. 
It  stood  up  from  the  street  on  wooden  posts, 
the  space  between  latticed.  Avrailed  gallery 
ran  across  the  front,  steps  ascending  midway 
of  its  length.  Two  giant  live-oaks  flanked 
the  building  either  end,  the  wooden  side- 


232  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

walk  cut  out  to  encircle  their  great  roots, 
and,  while  handbills  and  placards  were 
tacked  up  and  down  the  rugged,  seamy 
trunks,  yet  grey  moss  drooped  from  the 
branches  and  swept  the  gallery  posts.  The 
building  looked  roomy,  old-fashioned  and 
reposeful,  and  Alexina's  spirits  rose.  She 
gathered  up  the  wraps,  Celeste  the  satchels 
—  no  one  ever  looked  to  Molly  to  gather  up 
anything  —  and  they  went  in. 

The  place  seemed  deserted  and  asleep, 
but  just  inside  the  doorway,  where  the  hall 
broadened  into  an  office,  a  man  stood  look- 
ing through  a  pile  of  newspapers.  His 
clothes  were  black  and  his  vest  clerical;  be- 
low its  edge  hung  a  small  gold  cross.  He 
turned  politely,  then  said  he  would  go  and 
find  some  one. 

"Dear  me,"  said  Molly,  brightening, 
"he's  handsome.'* 


PART   THREE  933 

Two  days  after,  they  were  settled  in  com- 
fortable rooms  overlooking  the  hotel  grounds. 
A  slope  down  to  a  small  lake  boasted  some 
gnarled  old  live-oaks  and  pines,  and  one 
side  was  set  out  with  a  young  orange  grove. 
Across  the  water  one  could  see  several  more 
or  less  pretentious  new  houses  built  around 
the  shore.  The  breeze  tasted  of  pine  and 
Molly  had  slept  a  night  through  without 
coughing. 

"But,  Heavens!"  she  complained,  the 
second  afternoon,  lolling  back  in  a  wooden 
arm-chair  on  the  hotel  gallery;  "isn't  there 
anything  to  do?" 

Alexina  and  the  young  man  in  clerical 
garb  were  her  audience.  He  was  the  Rev- 
erend Harrison  Henderson,  and  had  charge 
of  the  Episcopal  Church  of  Aden  and  lived 
at  the  hotel.  He  seemed  a  definite  and 
earnest  man.  His  blond  profile  was  strong. 


234  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

It  was  a  rather  immobile  face,  perhaps,  but 
it  lighted  with  very  evident  pleasure  as  he 
answered  Mrs.  Gamier. 

"How  would  you  like  to  go  out  to  Nan- 
cy?" he  proposed;  "it's  quite  an  affair  for  a 
lake  down  here,  and  a  young  fellow  out  there 
rents  sail-boats." 

"Charming,"  agreed  Molly,  sitting  up. 
"  You  have  ideas ;  you  can't  have  been  here 
long." 

Mr.  Harrison  smiled,  though  it  was  an 
acknowledging  rather  than  a  mirthful  smile. 
Life  is  too  earnest  for  mere  laughter,  but  his 
zeal  to  serve  Mrs.  Gamier  was  not  to  be 
doubted. 

"  What  do  you  say,  Miss  Blair  ?  "  he  asked, 
turning  to  that  young  person. 

"  Who  ?  —  I  ?  "  Alexina  had  been  lean- 
ing forward  with  her  elbow  on  the  gallery 
railing,  her  eyes  looking  off  to  a  line  of 


PART  THREE  235 

pines  against  the  sky.  She  had  been  won- 
dering how  she  should  inquire  about  the 
Leroys,  and  if  she  really  wanted  to.  She 
came  back  to  the  veranda  and  the  present. 

"I  think  it  would  be  charming,  too,"  she 
replied. 

"  Then  we'll  go  right  away.  I'll  order  the 
carriage,  so  as  to  see  the  sunset,"  he  said, 
and  rose.  "You  will  need  wraps  for  Mrs. 
Gamier."  Somehow  a  man  never  thinks 
the  other  woman  will  need  anything. 

He  spoke  briskly  and  went  off  down  the 
plank  sidewalk  towards  town  with  a  swing. 
The  day  was  fair,  the  air  was  soft,  and  the 
blood  in  the  Reverend  Henderson,  despite 
the  dogmatic  taint  in  it,  was  red  and  young. 

Out  at  Lake  Nancy  Osceola,  a  young  fel- 
low in  flannel  shirt,  knickerbockers  and 
canvas  shoes,  was  scanning  the  shore  from 


286  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

a  wooden  pier  which  ran  out  the  extent  of 
shallow  water,  having  just  made  fast  the 
sail-boat  rising  and  falling  with  the  swell  at 
the  pier's  end. 

A  grove  of  well  grown  orange  trees 
stretched  up  the  slope  from  the  water.  The 
trees  were  heavy  with  fruit  and  looked 
sturdy  and  well  cared  for.  To  the  right 
stood  the  frame  packing  sheds,  and  beyond, 
amid  higher  foliage  against  the  cerulean 
sky,  showed  a  house  roof. 

But  the  young  fellow  on  the  pier  was  gaz- 
ing in  the  other  direction,  where,  through  the 
straight  vistas  of  the  grove,  a  carriage  was 
being  driven  under  the  trees,  the  top  sweep- 
ing the  fruit  laden  branches.  The  young 
man  hallooed  as  he  started  in  the  pier,  but  a 
negro  digging  among  the  trees  had  dropped 
his  spade  and  was  running  up.  The  carriage 
stopped  and  the  young  minister  of  the  Aden 


PART   THREE  237 

Episcopal  Church  got  out.  Naturally,  it 
was  to  be  supposed  that  it  was  some  person 
with  no  more  common  sense. 

But  there  were  others  than  the  Reverend 
Mr.  Henderson  descending — two  ladies. 
Some  party  from  the  hotel  come  for  a  sail, 
probably. 

It  was  the  duty  of  coloured  Pete  to  go  with 
sailing  parties,  but  there  was  work  that  he 
should  finish  this  afternoon.  The  old  darky 
was  backing  the  horse.  The  minister  and 
the  ladies  were  approaching. 

The  young  fellow  was  just  in  from  a  sail, 
having  been  down  to  the  sedge  land  with  his 
gun,  but  he  would  go  again.  He  gave  a  call. 
"It's  all  right,  Pete;  go  on  with  the  ditch- 
ing." 

His  eyes  were  indifferent  as  he  watched 
the  approach,  though  their  glance  was 
straight  and  clear  and  keen.  Suddenly  the 


238  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

look  changed,  intensified,  and  the  young  fel- 
low's shoulders  squared. 

The  minister  led  the  way,  talking  with  the 
pretty,  slight  woman,  who  stopped  with  pro- 
test every  step  as  her  feet  went  down  in  sand. 
Behind  them  came  a  jaunty-looking  girl 
with  light-footed  carriage.  The  wind  was 
ruffling  and  tossing  her  hair  and  she  held  to 
her  hat  as  she  stopped  under  the  orange 
trees  to  look  upon  the  prospect. 

But  the  eyes  watching  her  did  not  turn, 
knowing  the  scene  on  which  she  was  gazing. 
It  was  Lake  Nancy,-long  and  lizard-like  - 
its  sapphire  water  shimmering  beneath  the 
breeze  —  stretching  westward  between  curv- 
ing, twisting,  inletted  shores,  fringed  near  at 
hand  with  the  bright  green  of  young  oranges 
and  lemons,  and  farther  on  by  the  darker 
live-oak  and  pine,  while  on  the  opposite 
side  the  line  of  forest  stretched  heavy  and 


PART   THREE  239 

sombre,  trailing  grey  moss  hoariness  into 
Nancy's  lapping  wave. 

And  while  the  girl  gazed  on  Nancy  the 
young  man  watched  her  with  a  curious  in- 
tentness  but  with  no  doubt.  Then  he 
walked  in  the  length  of  the  pier  to  meet 
them.  As  the  girl's  eyes  came  round  to  him 
she  changed  to  a  startled  pallor,  white  as  her 
serge  gown,  and  her  eyes  dilated,  then  into 
them  came  eagerness. 

Except  for  a  tightening  pull  on  muscles 
about  nose  and  mouth  the  young  fellow 
stood  impassive. 

The  colour  rushed  back  into  the  girl's  face. 
The  young  man  had  turned  and  was  shak- 
ing hands  with  Mr.  Henderson.  The  min- 
ister was  mentioning  names,  too,  but  the  girl 
had  her  back  to  them  and  was  studying  the 
outstretch.  Her  head  was  high. 

When  she  turned  again  Mr.  Henderson 


240  THE   HOUSE   OF  FULFILMENT 

was  carefully  piloting  the  other  lady  into  the 
boat.  "Malise,"  that  lady  was  calling. 
Malise,  forced  by  this  to  come  and  be  helped 
in,  found  herself  in  the  stern.  But  her 
throat,  because  of  a  choked-back  sob,  hurt, 
and  a  vast  homesickness  and  sense  of  futil- 
ity was  upon  her. 

When  presently  she  could  look  up  and 
around  the  little  craft  was  skimming  out 
across  the  lake  to  deep  water,  where  it 
shifted  westward  and  flew  into  the  dying 
afternoon. 

There  were  billowy  puffs  of  clouds  high 
above,  softly  flushing  into  rose  with  a  golden 
fleeciness  to  their  edges.  Her  mother's  talk 
and  dulcet-toned  laughter  reached  the  girl, 
punctuated  with  the  serious  accents  of 
Mr.  Henderson.  The  two  were  sitting 
where  the  seats,  running  about,  came  to- 
gether at  the  bow,  and  he,  with  an  elbow  on 


PART    THREE  241 

the  rail,  was  looking  at  Molly.  Such  a  wist- 
ful, pretty  child  she  looked  in  her  white  can- 
vas dress,  with  her  wind-blown,  gauzy  veil 
fluttering  from  her  hat. 

Alexina's  eyes  were  fixed  on  them,  but  she 
was  conscious,  too,  of  a  gaze  on  her,  which 
for  all  her  hot  pride  and  hurt  she  could  not 
look  around  and  meet.  Once,  when  the 
sail  was  shifting  and  she  knew  the  eyes 
would,  perforce,  be  concerned  therewith,  she 
stole  a  hurried  survey  and  saw  a  well-knit 
figure,  quick  in  its  movements,  the  muscles 
playing  beneath  the  flannel  shirt.  A  dis- 
carded coat  was  upon  the  seat  near  her. 

"Down,  please,"  came  in  cool,  deliberate 
tones  from  the  owner  of  the  coat  and  the 
gaze.  The  head  of  the  girl  went  down,  while 
the  sail  swung  about.  The  boat  dipped, 
righted,  then  flew  ahead,  following  the  curv- 
ing shores  of  the  lake. 


242  THE    HOUSE    OF   FULFILMENT 

The  very  air  seemed  flushing,  the  shim- 
mering water  had  a  thousand  tints,  the 
shores  slipping  by  breathed  out  odours  of 
mould,  and  leaf  and  vine.  The  western  sky 
was  triumphing,  clouds  of  purple  and  of 
crimson  lifting  one  above  another  about  a 
golden  centre.  And  they  in  the  boat  were 
speeding  into  the  glory;  the  very  rosiness  of 
the  air  seemed  stealing  down  upon  them  and 
enveloping  them.  The  sense  of  avoirdu- 
pois, of  gravitation,  was  lost;  one  felt  winged, 
uplifted ;  it  was  good  all  at  once,  it  was  good 
to  live,  to  be. 

The  eyes  and  the  gaze  were  on  her  again ; 
she  felt  them  and  turned  suddenly  and  faced 
them.  The  look  she  met  was  deep  and 
warm,  but  it  changed,  holding  hers, grew  cool, 
enigmatical,  impersonal.  Did  he  not  know 
her  then,  or  did  he  not  want  to  know  her  ? 

This  time  tears  of  hurt  and  pride  rushed 


PART   THREE  243 

to  her  eyes.  He  was  watching,  but  she 
could  not  get  her  eyes  away,  even  with  those 
hateful  tears  welling. 

The  sail  shifted,  for  no  reason  apparently. 
"Down,  please,"  he  commanded.  But  as 
the  boat  dipped,  shook  itself,  righted  again, 
and  flew  on  through  the  rosy  light,  his  head 
came  up  near  hers  and  his  voice,  in  the  old, 
boyish  way,  said :  "Really?" 

Sudden  light  shone  through  the  tears  in 
the  girl's  eyes.  Molly  would  have  wrung 
her  hands  with  an  artist's  anguish,  this  was 
the  place  for  coquetry ! 

"I  thought  you  didn't  want  to  know  me 
and  I  was  hurt,"  said  Alexina. 

"It  was  yours  to  know  first,"  said  Willy 
Leroy  stoutly,  but  his  eyes  were  laughing. 

"Oh,"  said  Alexina,  doubtfully;  "why, 
yes;  perhaps  it  was."  And  then  she  laugh- 
ed, too,  gaily. 


CHAPTER  TWO 

As  Molly,  Alexina  and  Mr.  Henderson  sat 
on  the  front  gallery  of  the  hotel  the  next 
morning,  they  were  joined  by  one  Mr. 
Thompson  Jonas,  a  lawyer  of  Aden,  who 
lived  above  his  office  and  took  his  meals  at 
the  hotel. 

Mr.  Jonas  was  small,  wiry  and  muscular, 
of  Georgia  stock,  with  a  fierce  little  air  and  a 
fierce  moustache,  and  quick,  bright  blue  eyes, 
never  still.  He  had  sprung  to  the  aid  of 
Molly  and  Alexina  one  morning  and  flung  a 
door  open  as  they  passed  from  the  dining- 
room,  and  speedily  they  were  all  good 
friends. 


PART   THREE  245 

It  was  characteristic  of  him  that  he  should 
have  flung  the  door  back,  not  merely  opened 
it.  There  was  something  of  homage  in 
the  act.  Within  the  body  of  the  little  man 
was  the  chivalrous  spirit  of  a  Chevalier 
Bayard,  a  Coeur  de  Lion.  The  big  soul 
of  Mr.  Jonas  was  imprisoned  in  his  pigmy 
person  as  the  spirit  of  the  genius  in  the 
casket. 

He  was  a  Nimrod,  too,  and  even  now 
stood  in  hunting  accoutrements,  seeming 
rather  to  have  been  shaken  into  his  natty 
leggings  than  they  to  have  been  drawn  on- 
to him,  and  there  was  a  flare  and  dip  to  his 
wide,  soft  hat  and  a  jaunty  fling  to  his  knot- 
ted tie.  His  dog,  a  Gordon  setter  bitch,  sat 
on  her  haunches  by  him  as  he  stood,  his  fin- 
gers playing  with  her  silky  ears. 

"Now,  you'd  better  come  go  with  me, 
Henderson,"  he  was  urging,  "the  buggy's 


246  THE    HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

here  at  the  door  and  you  need  it  —  you  need 
this  sort  of  thing  more." 

"It's  a  busy  day  with  me,  thank  you," 
answered  the  Reverend  Henderson  a  little 
coldly,  for  this  Mr.  Jonas  was  a  man  of  no 
church.  His  faith,  he  had  frequently  as- 
sured the  young  clergyman,  would  long  ago 
have  died  for  breathing  space  in  any  creed 
he  yet  had  met  with. 

"When  you're  older  you'll  understand 
better  what  I  mean,  my  dear  boy,"  the  little 
man  had  in  good  part  and  cheerfulness  as- 
sured the  other.  "Come  around  and  use 
my  books  any  time  you  like." 

For  the  soul  of  Mr.  Jonas  enthused  —  or 
convinced  its  owner  that  it  did  —  over  Con- 
fucius, and  further  revelled  in  the  belief  that 
it  delved  in  occult  knowledge;  it  also  led 
him  to  place  the  volumes  of  the  early  Fa- 
thers on  his  book-shelves  and  the  literature 


PART   THREE  247 

of  the  Saints  and  of  Kant  and  Comte  and 
Swedenborg;  it  conducted  its  owner  to  the 
feet  of  Emerson  and  Thoreau;  it  made  him 
talk  Darwinism.  Jesus  Christ  and  Plato, 
Mr.  Jonas  loved  to  say,  made  up  his  ideal 
philosophy. 

Mr.  Henderson,  on  the  other  hand,  spoke 
of  church  buildings  in  Aden  other  than  his 
own  as  assembling  places.  It  was  inevita- 
ble he  did  not  give  his  approval  to  Mr.  Jo- 
nas. His  feeling  against  the  little  man  even 
made  him  enumerate  the  occupations  ahead 
for  the  day,  as  if  it  was  a  sort  of  avowal  of 
the  faith  to  thus  declare  them. 

"  It's  a  busy  day  with  me,  thank  you.  I 
have  a  feast  day  service  and  a  guild  meeting, 
besides  my  parochial  duties  and  a  vestry 
meeting  for  the  evening." 

"Dear  me,"  said  Molly,  looking  at  him. 
"  To  be  sure  —  I'd  forgotten  you're  a  minis- 


248  THE    HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

ter."  The  young  man  looked  up,  instant 
self-arraignment  in  his  face,  for  permitting 
it  to  be  forgotten. 

"When  do  you  have  service?"  Molly  was 
saying.  "We  must  come  over,  Malise 
and  I." 

He  told  her  gravely. 

Mr.  Jonas  was  standing  against  the  gal- 
lery railing,  rising  and  falling  on  his  neat 
little  toes,  the  setter's  eyes  following  his  ev- 
ery movement.  He  was  facing  Mrs.  Gar- 
nier  and  her  daughter,  looking  from  the 
mother,  with  her  red-brown  hair  and  shad- 
owy lashes,  to  the  girl,  quite  lovely,  also, 
when  she  smiled  in  this  sweet,  sudden  way 
up  at  him.  She  had  nice  hair,  too,  some- 
thing the  color  of  wild  honey. 

"Charming  women,  charming  women," 
he  was  summing  them  up. 

Yet  could  Mr.  Jonas  have  called  to  mind 


PART   THREE  249 

any  women,  the  old  or  young,  the  forlorn 
or  charming,  who  had  not  moved  him  to 
chivalric  emotion  in  some  form  ? 

Alexina  was  looking  up  the  street.  Mr. 
Jonas  turned,  too,  as  a  wagonette,  drawn  by 
two  big,  iron-grey  mules,  swung  round  the 
corner,  a  glitter  of  brass  and  a  hint  of  red 
about  the  harness.  A  young  fellow  on  the 
front  seat  was  driving;  a  lady  sat  behind. 

"  The  finest  boy  and  best  shot  in  Jasmine 
County,"  said  Mr.  Jonas,  starting  forward 
as  the  mules  were  reined  up  at  the  hotel  en- 
trance, "and  the  foolishest,  most  profound- 
ly wise  mother." 

Alexina  was  going  forward,  too.  "  We  — 
that  is,  I  know  them,"  she  told  him;  they 
are  old  friends,  the  Leroys." 

For  she  had  known  Charlotte  in  a  mo- 
ment. 

A  darky  boy  lounging  about  came  to  take 


250  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

the  mules  and  Willy  sprang  his  mother  out, 
as  lightly  as  ever  a  girl  would  spring,  and 
brought  her  up  the  steps  to  Alexina. 

Charlotte's  embrace  was  eager  and  ar- 
dent; then  she  cried  a  little,  with  her  face 
against  the  girl's  shoulder. 

"For  my  youth,"  she  said  the  next  in- 
stant, lifting  her  head  and  smiling  at  the 
girl.  "I'm  almost  a  middle-aged  woman, 
little  Mab ;  I'm  nearly  forty-five  and  I  don't 
want  to  be." 

Vivacity,  as  of  old,  dwelt  in  Char- 
lotte's face  and  animated  her  lively  move- 
ments, but  her  brilliant  eyes  were  some- 
what sunken,  as  happens  with  women  of 
marked  features  and  dashing  beauty;  the 
skin  was  growing  sallow  too,  and  as  the 
cheeks  and  temples  drew  in  the  features 
stood  large. 

"I  don't  know  how  to  grow  old,"  said 


PART   THREE  251 

Charlotte,  and  truthfully,  "I  don't  know 
how  to  let  go.  I  haven't  the  resourceful- 
ness, or  quiet,  or  repose,  for  an  old  woman." 

Always,  'way  back  as  Charlotte  Ransome, 
she  had  loved  the  showy,  and  she  loved  it 
still,  as  evidenced  by  the  scarlet  ribbon  from 
which  her  fan  hung,  and  the  flowered  mus- 
lin, showing  the  hand  of  village  dressmak- 
ing. But  she  bore  herself  with  the  smiling 
pleasure  of  a  child  in  them. 

Willy  joined  them.  He  had  been  talking 
with  Mr.  Jonas,  and  evidently  had  declined 
the  expedition  too,  for  the  little  man,  calling 
to  the  setter,  went  off  grumbling  and  up- 
braiding the  lot  of  them. 

"  We  came  early  to  avoid  the  heat,"  Char- 
lotte explained,  as  they  went  to  join  Molly 
and  Mr.  Henderson. 

Molly's  eyes  swept  Mrs.  Leroy's  youthful 
fineries  wonderingly,  curiously.  It  was  no 


252  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

credit  to  Molly  that  her  sixth  sense  lay  in  an 
instinctive  selection  of  the  appropriate  in  the 
beautiful.  She  wondered  much  as  a  child 
wonders  over  the  mysterious,  at  what  she 
more  often  than  not  saw  on  others. 

She  lolled  back  now  in  her  simple  dress, 
of  which  Alexina  had  reason  to  know  the 
cost,  and  she  lolled  indifferently  —  Celeste 
or  some  one  would  press  out  the  rumples 
when  need  be  —  then  she  held  out  a  pretty 
hand  to  Charlotte. 

But  Mrs.  Leroy,  the  greetings  over,  spread 
her  draperies  with  some  care  and  absorp- 
tion as  she  sat  down.  She  was  another  type 
of  helpless  person,  the  reverse  of  Molly,  with 
a  carping  sense  of  responsibility. 

Molly's  gaze  followed  her  concern  with 
lazy  interest  in  which  lurked  laughter,  for 
the  dress  upon  which  the  care  was  bestowed 
was  so,  well  — 


PART   THREE  253 

Alexina's  face  grew  hot;  she  hated  Molly, 
whose  every  thought  she  was  reading;  and, 
by  the  girl's  arrangement,  they  fell  into 
two  groups,  Molly  and  the  men  making  one, 
King  William  perched  on  the  railing  of  the 
gallery,  and  Alexina  and  Mrs.  Leroy  the 
other,  drawn  a  little  apart.  There  was  so 
much  to  say. 

"We  see  the  Kentucky  papers,"  Char- 
lotte told  Alexina,  "  so  I  know  of  most  of  the 
happenings."  She  drew  a  little  breath. 
"  And  Austen  Blair  is  married  ?  " 

"Yes,"  said  Alexina,  "just  before  we 
came." 

Charlotte  was  regarding  her  like  a  child 
with  a  secret  trembling  on  its  lips.  "I  was 
engaged  to  him  once,  Alexina,  and  we  broke 
it."  Light  from  many  sides  began  to  break 
in  upon  Alexina. 

"Oh,"  she  said;  "Mrs.  Leroy!" 


254  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

"  It's  odd,  isn't  it  ?  "  said  Charlotte.  "  He 
was  the  only  man  ever  caring  for  me  that  I 
never  subjugated  —  except  Willy  here  - 
Her  voice  brightened,  while  she  nodded,  in 
her  near-sighted  way,  at  Mr.  Henderson. 
"As  for  him,  he's  ruled  me  and  browbeat 
me  all  his  life."  And  Charlotte  smiled  con- 
tentedly at  the  minister. 

Alexina  reached  out  and,  with  a  passion- 
ate sort  of  protectingness,  took  hold  of  the 
beringed  hand  wielding  a  fan  with  vivacity 
and  sprightliness. 

"I  wish  we  could  have  given  him  more 
advantages,"  Mrs.  Leroy  was  continuing; 
"but  he's  had  to  plan  for  us  somehow  in- 
stead. I  remember  he  wasn't  eleven  years 
old,  though  it  seemed  natural  enough  he 
should  be  doing  it  at  the  time,  when  we  came 
over  from  St.  Louis  to  Louisville  without 
his  father,  and  Willy  had  to  buy  the  tickets 


PART   THREE  255 

and  check  the  trunks.  I  suppose  I  ought 
to  have  realized  it,  but  I  never  had  done 
such  things  in  my  life,  and  I  lost  my  purse  in 
the  depot,  I  remember,  and  a  gentleman 
found  it,  and  so  Willy  took  hold. 

"We  sent  him  into  town  here,  after  we 
came  to  Aden,  to  the  Presbyterian  minister, 
who  taught  him.  He  wanted  to  go  to  col- 
lege, not  that  he'd  admit  it  now.  Then  as 
soon  as  he  was  any  size  he  began  at  his  fa- 
ther about  reclaiming  the  grove.  That  is, 
Willy  planned  and  Georges  listened.  Wil- 
ly'd  got  an  idea  from  Mr.  Jonas  that  the  rail- 
road was  coming  through  some  day,  just  as 
it  has,  but  it's  been  a  long  pull  and  a  wait,  for 
this  is  the  first  full  yield  for  his  trees.  He's 
been  offered  seven  thousand  for  the  crop  as 
it  hangs,  but  the  mortgage  is  eight  thousand 
on  the  place,  which  went  for  fertilizing  and 
ditching  and  sheds,  and  living,  you  know, 


256  THE    HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

so  Willy  is  holding  for  eight  thousand  and 
Mr.  Jonas  is  urging  for  nine." 

Charlotte's  pride  in  these  statements  was 
beaming. 

"As  soon  as  the  grove  proves  itself,  the 
place  will  sell  for  several  times  its  old  value, 
and  we're  going  back  to  Kentucky,  to 
Woodford.  Willy  wants  to  buy  back  my 
father's  farm,  not  that  he'll  let  me  say  that 
he  does,  he's  so  afraid  of  admitting  anything, 
but  when  he  was  nineteen,  three  years  ago, 
he  had  the  measles  —  wasn't  it  dear  and 
comical,  like  he  was  a  child  again  —  and  he 
let  me  hold  his  hand,  in  the  dark  room,  you 
know,  and  we  talked  about  it,  when  we 
would  go  back." 

The  girl  was  patting  Charlotte's  hand 
softly  and  winking  back  tears  while  she 
laughed.  Why  tears?  She  herself  had  no 
idea. 


PART   THREE  257 

Mrs.  Leroy  had  a  thousand  questions  to 
ask,  she  said,  but  somehow  she  never  got  to 
them. 

"Dear  me,"  she  said  presently,  "we  have 
to  go  and  I've  talked  of  nothing  but  my  own 
affairs.  In  my  solitude  down  here  I've 
grown  a  shameless  egotist." 

As  if  she  had  been  ever  anything  else,  the 
unconscious  soul ! 

"But  to  be  with  one  of  my  own  sex  — 
some  one  linked  with  the  past,  too,  is  exten- 
uation. There's  so  much  a  woman  can't 
talk  of  with  men,  they  have  such  different 
ways  of  seeing  things,  and  let  her  love  her 
men  folk  never  so  dearly,  if  there's  none  of 
her  own  sex  around,  a  woman's  lonesome, 
Alexina." 

"Yes,"  said  Alexina,  "she  is."  But  she 
said  it  absently,  for  she  was  conscious  of 
King  William's  gaze  being  upon  her.  She 


258  THE    HOUSE    OF   FULFILMENT 

looked  up  laughing,  yet  a  little  confused,  for 
his  look  was  warm. 

He  slipped  along  the  railing,  leaving  Mrs. 
Gamier  and  the  minister  chatting.  In  this 
blue  serge  suit  and  straw  hat  he  looked  very 
like  the  King  William  of  long  ago,  dark,  keen 
and  impatient. 

"What  do  you  think  of  it,  Aden?"  he 
asked. 

"I  like  it,"  said  Alexina.  "Somehow  as 
soon  as  you  are  in  a  thing  the  scene  changes 
to  out  of  doors.  It  used  to  be  Indians  on 
the  common,  or  Crusoe  in  the  yard,  back 
there  in  Louisville." 

"You  began  by  saying  you  liked  it,"  he 
reminded  her.  Did  he  think  to  tease  ?  His 
eyes  were  naughty.  Here  was  a  zest;  this 
was  no  Georgy. 

"  And  I  do,"  she  said,  standing  to  it.  "  I 
do  like  it." 


PART  THREE  259 

Was  he  always  laughing  at  people,  this 
William  Leroy  ? 

"  They  are  coming  to  spend  a  day  with  us 
this  week,  Alexina  and  her  mother,"  Mrs. 
Leroy  here  told  her  son,  at  which,  for  all  the 
imperturbability  of  his  countenance,  Alex- 
ina was  conscious  of  something  a  little  less 
happy  about  the  son. 

"They're  very  good  to  come,"  he  respond- 
ed. The  tone  might  be  called  guarded. 

Certain  recollections  were  crowding  upon 
Alexina.  Mrs.  Leroy's  management,  her 
housekeeping,  even  to  a  child's  comprehen- 
sion, had  been  palpably  erratic  and  unex- 
pected. 

The  girl  understood  his  masculine  help- 
lessness. Hers  were  the  eyes  that  laughed 
now. 

"I've  set  the  table  in  your  house  before," 
she  informed  him,  "while  you  made  toast." 


260  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

His  countenance  cleared.  He  met  her 
gaze  solemnly.  "It's  a  bargain,"  he  said. 
"What day,  mother?" 

That  night  Alexina  was  chatting  with  Mr. 
Jonas.     She   liked   him.     "You    said   this 
morning,"  she  reminded  him,  "that  Mrs. 
Leroy  was  the  wisest,  foolishest  mother - 
what  did  you  mean  ?" 

"Just  that,"  said  Mr.  Jonas.  "Hasn't 
her  very  incompetency  made  the  boy  ?  " 


CHAPTER   THREE 

For  the  next  three  days  Mr.  Henderson 
avoided  them.  He  spoke  in  the  hall  or  din- 
ing-room, to  be  sure,  but  joined  them  no 
more  in  plans  or  on  the  gallery. 

And  Molly  turned  petulant.  Why  had  they 
ever  come  to  Aden,  she  moaned.  "  Can't  you 
propose  something,  Malise?"  she  besought. 

Alexina,  endeavouring  to  write  letters,  felt 
tired.  She  had  been  up  at  Molly's  call  a 
dozen  times  in  the  night. 

"  We're  going  to  spend  to-morrow  with 
Mrs.  Leroy,"  she  reminded  her  mother. 

"She  looks  like  Mrs.  Malaprop,"  said 
Molly  crossly. 


262  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

The  daughter's  face  flushed.  Youth  is 
rawly  sensitive  to  ridicule  of  its  friends. 
Besides,  what  would  they  find  at  Lake 
Nancy?  It  would  be  poor,  she  expected 
that,  and  it  might  be  —  pitiful  ?  Not  to  her, 
not  to  her,  but  Molly  was  so  unable  to  see 
behind  things.  If  a  thing  was  poor  to  Mol- 
ly it  was  only  poor  and  she  said  so.  Alexina 
hoped  her  mother  would  not  go. 

But  when  Friday  came  Molly,  in  feverish, 
restless  state,  was  ready  for  anything  and 
even  brightened  up  over  it,  while  it  was 
Alexina  who  was  petulant,  and  put  on  one 
dress  and  took  it  off,  and  tried  another,  even 
with  William  Leroy  down-stairs  in  the  wag- 
onette, waiting. 

But  she  felt  better  as  she  came  out  into 
the  sunshine  and  the  dress  she  had  finally 
decided  on  seemed  to  settle  on  her  into  sud- 
den jauntiness. 


PART   THREE  263 

William  shook  hands.  There  was  a  com- 
fortable sense  of  humour  about  him. 

"It's  fair  to  divide  families  into  compo- 
nent parts  on  occasions,"  he  stated,  and  put 
Alexina  in  a  place  by  his  own  and  Molly  be- 
hind. Molly  pouted. 

"  And,  besides,  we  are  going  to  drop  Hen- 
derson at  a  sick  parishioner's  on  the  way," 
he  said,  with  a  naughty  glance  at  her.  "I 
met  him  starting  to  the  livery  stable  just  now 
and  stopped  him." 

Molly's  face  cleared.  She  met  his  eyes 
with  insouciance,  but,  somehow,  one  felt  all 
at  once  that  she  liked  him  better. 

Mr.  Henderson  came  out  with  a  satchel  and 
climbed  in.  He  looked  stern  and  uninviting, 
Alexina  thought,  but  the  note  of  Molly's 
random  remarkings  promptly  brightened. 
Willy  flicked  the  whip  above  the  big  grey  span 
and  off  they  trotted  across  town,  westward. 


264  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

The  morning  was  keen  enough  that  the 
sun's  warmth  was  pleasant  and  quickened 
the  blood.  Aden  was  left  behind.  Here  and 
there  on  the  outskirts  frame  houses,  crudely 
and  hideously  cheap,  were  building.  Land 
everywhere  was  being  cleared,  the  felled  trees 
lying  about,  the  whirl  of  a  portable  sawmill 
telling  their  destiny,  while  burning  stumps 
filled  the  air  with  creosote  pungency. 

Then  the  despoilments  of  progress  were 
left  behind  and  the  untouched  pine  woods 
closed  about  them,  and  trees  rose  tall, 
straight,  twigless,  to  where  a  never-ceasing 
murmur  soughed,  and  the  light  came  sifting, 
speckled,  and  flickering  through  the  gloom, 
upon  the  sandy  ground  and  scrub  palmetto 
beneath. 

Alexina  breathed  deep.  It  was  quiet, 
and  peaceful  and  solemn. 

"Isn't  it  ?"  said  William  sociably. 


PART   THREE  265 

She  looked  up ;  she  hadn't  spoken. 

The  trees  thinned,  grew  sparse,  and  the 
road  came  out  into  the  open.  A  mile  far- 
ther on  they  entered  a  belt  of  hummock  land, 
a  wild  growth  of  live-oak,  cypress,  magno- 
lias, thicketed,  intertwisted,  rank.  Grey 
moss  trailed  and  swept  their  faces  as  they 
passed  under,  vines  clambered  and  swung 
and  festooned,  gophers  crawled  out  of  the 
path,  and  a  gleaming  snake  slid  across  the 
road  and  into  the  palmetto  undergrowth. 

He  was  looking  at  her  as  they  came  out, 
she  flushed  and  ecstatic. 

"But  wait,"  said  he,  "until  I  show  it  to 
you  after  a  while  in  bloom." 

Just  beyond  the  hummock  he  drew  rein 
at  a  clearing  before  an  unpainted  frame 
house,  even  cheaper  and  more  hideous  than 
the  most.  Mr.  Henderson  got  out,  King 
handing  the  satchel  after  him. 


260  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

"It's  a  death-bed,"  he  said  under  his 
breath  to  the  two,  as  the  minister  went  tow- 
ard the  house;  "that's  the  pitiful  part  of  it 
down  here,  people  taking  all  they've  got  to 
get  here,  only  to  die." 

"Don't  —  don't  tell  about  it,"  said  Molly 
sharply. 

William  Leroy  touched  the  mules  and 
they  went  on.  A  little  later  Alexina  felt 
Molly's  hand  upon  her.  "  Come  back  with 
me,  Malise,"  she  begged.  Her  face  looked 
drawn  and  grey. 

"But  we're  there,"  explained  King,  and  a 
minute  after  turned  in  at  an  old  iron  gate, 
flanked  by  two  ancient  live-oaks.  An  osage 
hedge,  cut  back  upon  its  woody  stock, 
stretched  about  the  place  either  side  from 
the  gate.  Within,  the  driveway  made  a 
sweep  off  towards  buildings  in  the  rear,  while 
a  shell  path  led  up  to  the  house,  which  was 


PART  THREE  267 

of  frame,  wide,  with  porches  across  the  front, 
up-stairs  and  down.  Bermuda  grass  covered 
the  sandy  surface  of  the  yard,  which  was 
large  and  sloped  back  towards  the  lake,  vis- 
ible through  the  grove.  Here  and  there  a 
banana  plant  reared  its  ragged  luxuriance 
and  a  stunted  palm  or  two  struggled  up- 
ward; there  was  an  old  rustic  seat  beneath 
a  gnarled  wild  orange  tree. 

As  Willy  helped  them  out,  Charlotte  ap- 
peared and  came  animatedly  down  the  path 
between  the  borders  of  crepe  myrtle.  Alex- 
ina  ran  ahead  to  meet  her.  The  girl's  hands 
were  quite  cold.  Mrs.  Leroy's  white  dress, 
relic  of  by-gone  fashion,  fluttered  with  rose- 
coloured  ribbons,  and  suddenly  Alexina 
seemed  to  see  a  wide  old  cottage  in  a  shrub- 
grown  yard,  and  on  its  porch  a  lady  in  a 
gauzy  dress  with  rosy  ribbons,  gathering  a 
little  child  into  her  lap. 


268  THE   HOUSE   OF  FULFILMENT 

The  girl  threw  her  arms  about  this  Char- 
lotte in  the  old  white  dress,  and  then,  be- 
cause her  eyes  were  full  of  foolish  tears,  ran 
on,  for  the  Captain  was  on  the  porch,  in  a 
cane  arm-chair,  a  line  of  blue  smoke  trailing 
up  from  the  cigar  in  his  fingers.  Laughing 
and  breathless  she  went  up  the  steps  and 
their  eyes  met.  Never  a  word  spoke  either, 
but  the  hand  of  the  man  closed  on  the  girl's 
and  rested  there  until  the  others  came  up. 

"  Willy  wouldn't  let  me  do  a  thing  about 
your  coming,  Alexina,"  Mrs.  Leroy  began, 
as  she  reached  them;  "he  said  he'd  tend  to 
it  himself  and  wouldn't  let  me  give  a  direc- 
tion. He's  fussy  sometimes  and  notionate, 
like  the  time  when  the  surveyors  were  staying 
with  us,  and  Mandy  set  some  dishes  on  a 
chair.  I'd  already  told  him  she  didn't 
know  how  to  clear  a  table  for  dessert,  and 
he  said  I  ought  to  have  taught  her." 


PART  THREE  269 

The  girl's  eyes  danced.  "  You're  all  of 
you  the  same,  the  very  same;  not  one  of 
the  three  has  changed." 

Charlotte  beamed.  She  took  it  with  un- 
disguised pleasure  that  she  had  not  changed. 

King  came  round  the  house.  He  had 
taken  the  mules  to  the  stable.  "I'm  hold- 
ing you  to  that  bargain,"  he  reminded 
Alexina. 

Molly  looked  bored.  Such  things  were 
only  playful  and  interesting  as  she  was 
part  of  them.  Then  she  said  she  was  tired, 
evidently  having  no  mind  for  a  morning  with 
Mrs.  Leroy. 

"You  shall  go  up  and  lie  down  in  my 
room,"  said  Charlotte. 

The  three  women  went  in.  The  hall  di- 
viding the  house  was  wide  and  high,  its  floor 
of  boards  a  foot  wide,  and  bare  but  for  a 
central  strip  of  carpet;  an  old  mahogany  hat- 


270  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

tree  stood  against  one  wall,  a  mahogany  sofa 
against  the  other,  with  straight  backed 
chairs  flanking  both.  It  was  all  labouriously 
clean  and  primly  bare. 

The  rooms  up-stairs  were  big,  with  old 
mahogany  furniture  set  squarely  about 
them. 

"They  didn't  want  me  to  bring  the  furni- 
ture, Willy  and  his  father,  when  we  came," 
Charlotte  told  Alexina;  "it  cost  more  to  get 
it  here  than  to  buy  new,  but  I  didn't  want 
new;  I  wanted  this." 

Everything  was  innocent  of  covers  or 
hangings,  nor  were  there  any  pictures.  She 
explained  this. 

"I  don't  know  how  to  drive  nails,"  she 
told  them,  "  and  Willy  and  the  Captain  don't 
care.  Willy  had  the  house  papered  this 
fall  in  case  of  people  coming  about  buying, 
and  the  papering  men  took  the  nails  out  the 


PART  THREE  271 

walls  and  he  won't  bother  to  put  them  in. 
They're  all  in  here." 

Charlotte  didn't  mean  the  nails ;  she  threw 
open  a  closet  door  and  ancestral  Ransomes, 
neatly  set  against  the  walls,  peered  out  of 
the  dark. 

Alexina  put  a  hand  over  Charlotte's  on 
the  door  knob.  Molly  yawned. 

"It  seems  chilly  here  in  my  room,"  said 
Charlotte;  "the  sun  isn't  round  this  side 
yet.  Put  your  hats  on  the  bed  and  Mrs. 
Gamier  shall  go  lie  on  Willy's  sofa." 

They  followed  her  across  the  hall.  "He 
has  his  bed  and  things  in  there,"  she  ex- 
plained, nodding  towards  an  adjoining  room, 
"  and  he  keeps  his  books  and  such  in  here." 

On  the  floor,  otherwise  uncarpeted,  lay  a 
bearskin.  There  was  a  sofa  against  the 
wall  and  a  plain  deal  table  in  the  centre  of 
the  room,  piled  with  papers,  books  and  pipes, 


272  THE   HOUSE   OF  FULFILMENT 

about  a  lamp.  There  were  some  chairs ;  a 
gun-rack,  antlers,  an  alligator  skin  and 
some  coloured  prints  of  English  hunting 
scenes  on  the  walls,  and  an  old-fashioned, 
brass-mounted  cellarette  hung  in  an  angle. 
The  south  window  looked  out  across  the 
grove  upon  Nancy;  between  the  two  east 
windows  stood  an  old  secretary  book-case. 

Charlotte  suggesting  that  Mrs.  Gamier 
put  on  a  wrapper,  the  two  went  back  to  her 
bed-room.  Alexina  stood  hestitating.  She 
felt  a  sense  of  surreptitiousness  and  embar- 
rassment, and  then  took  a  step  to  the  book- 
case —  any  one  might  do  that  much  —  and 
read  the  titles  of  the  books. 

About  orange  culture  and  fertilizing  these 
first  seemed  to  be,  and  those  next  were  con- 
cerned with  the  breeding  of  stock.  They 
meant  Woodford  and  the  future,  probably. 
She  skipped  to  the  other  shelves.  Buck- 


PART   THREE  1273 

le's  Introduction  to  the  History  of  Civiliza- 
tion, Hallam's  Middle  Ages,  Wealth  of  Na- 
tions, Wilhelm  Meister,  Poems  of  Heinrich 
Heine,  several  volumes  of  Spencer  and  Hux- 
ley, Slaves  of  Paris,  Lecocq,  the  Detective, 
File  No.  118,  The  Lerouge  Case,  The  Scot- 
land Yard  Detective,  Carlyle's  French 
Revolution,  Taxidermitology,  Kenan's  Life 
of  Jesus,  Pole  onWhist,  Hoyle,  Tom  Sawyer, 
Past  and  Present,  Pickwick  Papers,  Herod- 
otus, an  unbroken  shelf  of  Walter  Scott,  A 
Pair  of  Blue  Eyes,  Cousin  Pons,  Drainage, 
Pendennis,  Small  Fruit  Culture. 

Why,  here  was  a  world,  within  these  glass 
doors,  she  did  not  know.  Yet  she  had  read 
diligently  among  Uncle  Austen's  books. 
She  looked  back  in  memory  over  his  shelves ; 
Macaulay,  yes,  Uncle  Austen  cared  so  es- 
sentially for  Macaulay,  and  for  Bancroft  and 
Prescott,  and  Whittier  and  Lowell.  There 


274  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

were  the  standards  in  fiction  and  poetry  in 
well-bound  sets.  Uncle  Austen  himself  ad- 
mired Alexander  Pope,  and  Franklin's  Au- 
tobiography; he  liked  Charles  Reade's 
novels,  too,  bearing  on  institutional  re- 
forms — 

Here  Mrs.  Leroy  and  Molly  came  back, 
Molly  in  a  white  wrapper  and  Charlotte 
bearing  a  pillow  and  a  silk  quilt. 

"Willy's  calling,"  Charlotte  told  Alexina; 
"  he  wants  you." 

He  was  at  the  foot  of  the  stairs,  and,  wait- 
ing for  her  to  get  down,  watched  her  hand  on 
the  banister.  The  wood  was  dark  and  the 
hand  was  white  and  slender.  Then  he  held 
out  a  big,  checked  apron.  She  walked  into 
it  and  looked  over  her  shoulder  while  he 
tied  the  strings  behind. 

It  takes  time  to  set  a  table  when  neither  is 
just  certain  where  things  are  to  be  found. 


PART   THREE  275 

Hunting  together  in  sideboard,  cupboards, 
and  on  pantry  shelves  brings  about  a  feeling 
of  knowing  each  other  very  well.  There 
was  so  much,  too,  to  talk  about. 

"Do  you  remember — "  it  was  Alexina 
pausing  with  a  goblet  in  hand  to  ask  it. 

"Have  you  forgot — "  King,  producing  a 
carving  set,  would  rejoin. 

Presently  she  paused.  Twice  she  started 
to  speak,  hesitated,  then  said,  "There's 
a  thing  I  want  to  ask  you,  or,  rather,  want 
to  say—  Her  voice  was  a  little  tremulous 
and  breathless. 

"Yes." 

"You  remember  —  that  is,  you  haven't 
forgot  the  'King  William*  ?" 

She  was  looking  away  from  him  and  he 
looking  at  her,  his  mouth  odd,  yet  smiling, 
too.  She  was  an  honest  and  a  pleasant 
thing  to  look  upon.  "  Yes,"  he  told  her,  "  as 


276  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

well  as  I  remember  the  raft  we  put  off  on 
from  the  desert  island  and  the  plains  back  of 
the  stable  —  have  you  forgotten  the  track- 
less plains  where  we  sat  down  to  starve  in 
the  snow,  with  never  a  sign  of  deer  or  buf- 
falo for  days,  or  even  a  thing  on  wing  ?  We'd 
just  lighted  on  Hiawatha  those  days.  There 
was  an  Indian,  by  the  way,  came  up  from 
the  grass  water  yesterday  and  brought  us 
venison  for  to-day." 

It  was  evident  he  did  not  mean  to  let  her 
return  to  the  subject. 

Presently  Alexina  untied  the  apron.  "I 
must  see  your  mother  some,"  she  said. 

"But  she  does  not  want  you,"  declared  his 
mother's  son;  "she's  overjoyed  to  think 
you're  with  me.  She  thinks  there  is  some- 
thing deficient  in  her  son;  she  insists  I've 
never  spoken  to  a  girl  since  we  left  you  in 
Louisville.  Besides,  she's  in  the  kitchen, 


PART  THREE  277 

I  hear  her  out  there  now,  all  fluttered  herself 
and  fluttering  Aunt  Mandy." 

But   Alexina   would   go.     "I    must   call 
Molly  in  time  for  dinner,"  she  insisted. 


CHAPTER   FOUR 

Now  William  Leroy  supposed  Mrs.  Gamier 
to  be  in  his  mother's  room.  A  moment  later 
he  followed  Alexina  up  the  stairs,  meaning 
to  get  something  out  of  his  desk  which  he 
wished  to  show  her.  He  was  a  most  direct 
youth,  considering  that  he  was,  by  his  moth- 
er's confession,  a  timorous  one.  There  was 
an  odd  little  smile  about  his  mouth,  perhaps 
because  all  things  looked  pleasant  right  now. 
His  nature  was  practical  rather  than  san- 
guine, and  built  in  general  only  on  things 
achieved,  but  to-day  the  fruit  was  hanging 
golden  on  the  trees  and  the  grove  was  one 
of  the  few  new  ones  in  bearing.  He  had 


PART   THREE  279 

anticipated  the  railroad  by  several  years  in 
planting,  and  now  the  grove  and  house  were 
going  to  bring  a  figure  larger  than  he  ever 
had  hoped  for. 

As  the  Israelites  yearned  for  Canaan,  he 
was  looking  towards  the  pastoral  lands  of 
Kentucky.  To-day,  for  the  once,  he  would 
let  this  new  buoyancy,  this  unanalyzed  op- 
timism run  warm  in  his  blood;  why  not? 
He  was  young,  he  was  strong,  he  was  master 
of  his  circumstances  for  the  first  time. 

He  went  up  the  steps  lightly,  springily, 
with  a  sort  of  exuberant  joy  in  the  mere 
action.  His  canvas  shoes  made  no  sound. 
The  stairs  landed  him  at  his  own  door.  He 
brought  up  short. 

Alexina  was  standing  midway  of  the 
threshold;  he  thought  he  heard  a  sob. 

She  turned  hurriedly,  her  hands  outspread 
across  the  doorway  as  by  instinct. 


280  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

"Don't,"  she  begged;  "please  go  away." 
Then  as  he  wheeled,  "No,  wait—  She 
swallowed  before  she  could  speak. 

"It's  Molly,"  she  said;  "can  you  send  us 
back  to  town  ?  she's  —  she's  - 

"Not  well,"  the  daughter  was  trying  to 
say.  The  boy's  straightforward  eyes  were 
fixed  on  hers  inquiringly. 

"What's  the  use;  I  can't  lie,"  the  girl 
broke  down  miserably.  "I  ought  not  to 
have  come  with  her."  Her  arms  dropped 
from  across  the  doorway.  In  all  perplexity 
he  was  waiting.  He  had  a  glimpse  of  Molly 
within,  drooping  against  the  table,  and  her 
eyes  regarding  them  with  a  kind  of  furtive 
fear. 

His  hunting  flask  from  out  the  cellarette 
was  there  on  the  table. 

The  girl  was  speaking  with  effort.  "  I'm 
sorry;  she  must  have  felt  bad  and  found  it." 


PART  THREE  281 

She  suddenly  hid  her  face  in  her  hands 
against  the  casement. 

That  roused  him.  He  felt  dazed.  It 
needed  a  woman  here  to  feel  the  way. 

"I'll  get  mother,"  he  said. 

"Oh,"  begged  the  girl,  and  quivered; 
"  can't  we  get  back  to  town  without  —  must 
she  know?" 

King  was  growing  himself  again.  "  Why," 
he  said,  "of  all  people,  yes,  mother." 

He  went  down  the  steps  two  at  a  time. 
There  was  no  sensitive  apprehension  in  his 
manner  when  he  brought  her  back,  as  there 
often  was  concerning  his  mother;  he  knew 
her  strength  as  well  as  her  incompetencies. 

She  came  straight  up  and  hardly  noticed 
Alexina  as  she  passed  but  went  on  to  Molly, 
whose  eyes,  full  of  shame  and  fear,  were 
dully  watching  the  scene. 

Charlotte  put  her  arms  about   her,  drew 


282  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

her  to  the  sofa,  and  sat  by  her.  "Poor 
dear,"  she  said;  "poor  dear." 

Molly  drooped,  trembled,  then  turned  and 
clung  to  her,  crying  piteously.  "  You're  sorry 
for  me  ?  I  did  it  because  I'm  afraid.  He 
said  they  all  come  down  here  to  die.  Malise 
don't  know,  she  don't  understand,  she's 
hard." 

;'You  go  down  to  your  dinner,  Alexina," 
said  Charlotte;  "it's  waiting.  Oh,  yes, 
yes  you  will  go."  There  was  finality  in  the 
tone,  very  different  from  Charlotte's  usually 
indefinite  directions.  "Leave  your  mother 
to  me;  oh,  you  needn't  tell  me  anything 
about  it;  I  know.  And  take  that  hardness 
out  of  your  face,  Alexina,  it's  your  own 
fault  if  you  let  this  embitter  you,  it's  our- 
selves that  let.  things  spoil  our  lives,  not  the 
things.  I'll  tell  you  something,  that  you 
may  believe  I  know,  something  that  I  told 


PART  THREE  283 

Willy  at  a  time  his  arrogance  seemed  to 
need  the  knowledge.  My  father,  my  great, 
splendid,  handsome  father,  all  my  life  was 
this  way.  But  he  came  straight  home  to 
my  mother,  and  so  she  kept  him  from 
worse,  and  held  him  to  his  place  in  the 
world.  Keep  on  loving  them,  it's  the  only 
way.  Many  a  time  we've  all  cried  together 
like  babies,  father  and  mother  and  I,  by 
her  sofa." 

"Willy,"  called  Charlotte.  The  boy  ran 
up  from  below.  "Take  Alexina  down  to 
her  dinner  and  afterwards  take  her  out  of 
doors.  No,  you're  not  going  back  to  the 
hotel,  not  to-night.  Willy  can  send  Peter  in 
for  your  woman  and  your  things,  for  you're 
going  to  stay  here  till  she's  better  and  you  see 
this  thing  differently." 

That  evening  King  and  Alexina  sat  on  the 


284  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

edge  of  the  pier,  the  water  lapping  the  posts 
beneath  their  swinging  feet.  He  was  peel- 
ing joints  of  sugar-cane  and  handing  her 
sections  on  the  blade  of  his  knife,  she  trying 
to  convince  herself  that  they  were  as  tooth- 
some as  he  insisted  they  were.  He  could 
idle  like  a  child. 

But  the  girl's  mind  was  back  there  in  the 
house.  "According  to  your  mother,"  she 
was  saying,  "there's  got  to  be  affection  back 
of  the  doing  of  a  duty."  Poor  child,  she  was 
putting  it  so  guardedly,  so  impersonally  she 
thought. 

"  Well,"  said  he,  dropping  his  unappreci- 
ated bits  of  cane,  piece  by  piece  into  the 
water,  "that's  a  woman's  way  of  looking  at 
it." 

"  What's  a  man's  ?  "  asked  the  girl,  at  that, 
"how  does  a  man  do  hard  things  ?" 

"He  just  does  'em,  I  should  say,  and 


PART   THREE  285 

doesn't  analyze.     He's  got  to  be  at  some- 
thing, you  know;  it's  part  of  the  creed." 

"What  creed?"  demanded  Alexina. 

"Mr.  Jonas's." 

"Oh,"  said  Alexina,  "yes,  I  see." 


CHAPTER   FIVE 

Molly,  Alexina  and  Celeste  stayed  a  week  at 
Nancy  with  the  Leroys.  It  was  a  household 
wherein  there  was  no  strain,  no  tension, 
though,  to  be  sure,  there  was  small  manage- 
ment. One  had  a  comical  comprehension 
that  Mandy  the  cook  and  Tina  the  wash- 
woman kept  their  families  off  the  gullibility 
and  good  faith  of  their  mistress. 

Alexina  was  sent  into  the  sunshine. 

"Keep  her  outdoors,"  Charlotte  com- 
manded Willy;  "the  child's  morbid." 

Mr.  Jonas  drove  out  with  trophies  of  game 
as  offerings  to  Mrs.  Gamier.  One  morning 
Mr.  Henderson  came  with  him  in  the  buck- 


PART  THREE  287 

board,  and  Molly  and  the  two  men  sat  in  the 
sunshine  on  the  porch  and  talked. 

"Did  he  die?"  she  asked  the  minister 
presently. 

"Who?" 

"  The  man  at  the  house  where  you  stopped 
that  day?"  She  asked  it  as  one  driven  to 
know,  even  while  apprehensive  of  the  an- 
swer. 

Exultation  leaped  for  an  instant  to  the 
young  man's  face,  a  stern  joy.  "  He  died," 
he  told  her,  "but  in  the  faith  at  the  end." 

"In  what  faith?"  Molly  asked  curiously. 
She  was  a  child  in  so  many  things. 

"The  Church,"  he  told  her,  with  reproof 
in  his  tone. 

The  click  of  Mr.  Jonas's  incisors  upon 
incisors  chopped  the  air. 

But  Molly  moved  a  little  nearer  the  minis- 
ter. 


288  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

;<Yes,"  she  agreed  slowly,  unwillingly  al- 
most; "they  all  do.  Father  Bonot  used  to 
say  it  over  and  over.  They  all  come  back 
to  the  Church  to  —  to  die." 

She  was  shivering. 

There  was  a  quick,  snapped  off  h'ah  from 
Mr.  Jonas. 

Mr.  Henderson  looked  bewildered.  "I 
did  not  know;  then,  Mrs.  Gamier,  you 
are—" 

"I'm  a  Catholic,"  said  Molly,  a  little  in 
wonder. 

"Romanist?"  said  the  other  gently. 

But  Molly  wasn't  listening,  nor  would  she 
have  known  what  the  distinction  meant, 
had  she  been.  It  was  Mr.  Jonas  who  gave 
forth  another  sound  that  was  almost  a  snort, 
and  marched  off  to  where  King  and  Alexina 
were  sitting  on  the  step. 

Molly    watched    him    go,    then    glanced 


PART  THREE  289 

around  as  if  to  insure  aloofness,  and  leaned 
forward,  her  fingers  pulling  at  the  edge  of 
her  handkerchief. 

:<You  helped  him  to  die,  and  you're  a 
priest  —  one  sort  of  a  priest  —  and  I  want 
to  tell  you  — ' 

"No,"  said  the  other,  "you  do  not  under- 
stand; let  me  make  you  see." 

"It  doesn't  matter,"  said  Molly;  "no," 
hurriedly,  "let  me  tell  you.  I  want  to  tell 
you.  It  will  help  me.  I  take  things  —  I 
have  to;  anything  that  will  make  me  forget 
and  make  me  sleep.  I'm  afraid  —  I  take  it 
because  I'm  afraid  to  die." 

He  looked  at  her  out  of  dull  eyes.  She 
was,  self-avowedly,  everything  he  held 
abhorrent  -  -  alien,  worldly,  and  weak. 
He  stammered  something  —  was  he  ask- 
ing God  to  help  her,  or  himself?  —  and 
left  her. 


290  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

Later,  as  he  and  Mr.  Jonas  drove  back  to 
Aden,  the  eyes  of  Mr.  Jonas  snapped. 
''You're  brewing  mischief  to  your  own  or 
somebody  else's  peace  of  mind;  you  always 
are  when  you  look  like  that.  Out  with  it, 
man." 

Why  Mr.  Henderson  should  out  with  it, 
he  himself  knew  less  than  any,  but  Mr. 
Jonas  had  a  way. 

The  minister's  words  came  forth  with 
effort. 

"I've  been  seeking  light  to  know  why 
Mrs.  Gamier  was  sent  down  here.  I've 
never  cared  for  a  woman  before;  I  can't 
seem  to  tear  it  out.  But  to-day  it's  made 
clear:  she  was  sent  to  me  to  be  saved." 

"From  her  faith?"  inquired  Mr.  Jonas. 

But  the  minister  was  impervious  to  the 
sarcasm. 

"To  the  faith,"  said  Mr.  Henderson. 


PART  THREE  291 

The  others  gone,  Alexina,  King  William 
and  the  Captain  sat  on  the  porch.  The  girl 
who  was  on  the  step  reached  up  and  put  a 
hand  on  the  locket  swinging  from  the  Cap- 
tain's fob.  "May  I?"  she  asked,  "I  used 
to,  often,  you  know." 

The  Captain  slipped  the  watch  out  and 
handed  it  to  her,  the  rest  depending,  and  she 
opened  the  locket,  a  large,  thin,  plain  gold 
affair.  "This,"  she  said,  bending  over  it, 
then  looking  up  at  the  Captain  archly,  "this 
is  Julie  Piquet,  your  mother,  wife  of  Aristide 
Leroy,  refugee  and  Girondist. " 

She  recited  it  like  a  child  proud  of  know- 
ing its  lesson,  then  regarded  him  out  of  the 
corners  of  her  eyes,  laughing. 

There  answered  the  faintest  flicker  of  a 
smile  somewhere  in  the  old  Roman  face. 

The  girl  returned  to  the  study  of  the  dark 
beauty  on  the  ivory  again,  its  curly  tresses 


292  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

fillet  bound,  its  snowy  breasts  the  more  re- 
vealed than  hidden  by  the  short-waisted, 
diaphanous  drapery. 

"  And  because  it  had  been  your  father's 
locket,  with  you  and  your  mother  in  it,  Mrs. 
Leroy  wouldn't  let  you  change  it  to  put  her 
in;  and  so  this  on  the  other  side  is  you, 
young  Georges  Gautier  Hippolyte  Leroy  - 

"Written  G.  Leroy  in  general,"  inter- 
polated the  gentleman's  son. 

"And  this  is  how  you  looked  at  twenty, 
dark  and  rosy-cheeked,  with  a  handsome 
aquiline  nose.  You  never  were  democratic, 
for  all  your  grand  pose  at  being;  do  you  be- 
lieve he  was?"  This  to  King.  "Look  at 
him  here;  if  ever  there  was  an  inborn,  in- 
bred aristocratic  son  of  a  revolutionist - 

"He  barricaded  the  streets  of  Paris  with 
his  fellow-students  in  his  turn,  don't  forget," 
said  King. 


PART   THREE  293 

"  Where  his  papa  had  sent  him  for  a  more 
cosmopolitan  knowledge  of  life  than  Louis- 
ville could  afford,"  supplemented  Alexina 

gaily- 

"And  where  he  wrote  verses  to  a  little 
dressmaker  across  the  hall,"  said  William. 

" Verses?"  said  Alexina.  "Did  he  write 
verses  ?  I  never  heard  about  the  verses." 

"  No  ?  "  said  the  son ;  "  hasn't  he  ever  writ- 
ten verses  to  you  ?  Well,  since  I've  opened 
the  way  to  it,  I  was  leading  up  to  it  all  the 
while,  why  /  have.  I'll  show  'em  to  you. 
I've  had  'em  in  my  pocket  waiting  the  oppor- 
tunity three  days  now."  Which  was  true. 
He  had  been  going  for  them  that  first  day. 

He  produced  a  small  card  photograph, 
somewhat  faded,  which,  taken  in  Alexina's 
hand,  showed  her  a  little  girl's  serious  face, 
with  short-cropped  hair. 

"  She  had  a  nice,  straight  little  nose,  any- 


294  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

how,"  said  Alexina  approvingly,  studying 
the  card. 

"Turn  it  over,"  said  William  Leroy.  He 
had  a  way  of  commanding  people.  Some 
day  Alexina  intended  warring  with  him 
about  it,  but  she  turned  it  over  now.  The 
lines  inscribed  on  its  reverse  were  in  a  round 
and  laboured  script  that,  despite  effort,  stag- 
gered down  hill. 

"  I  wrote  *em,"  said  Willy  Leroy,  "  moi  - 
myself,  with  gulped-down  tears  at  leaving 
you.     I've  never  written  any  since." 

She  was  reading  them. 

"  Out  loud,"  he  commanded. 

She  read  them  aloud.  She  was  laughing, 
but  she  was  blushing  absurdly,  too. 

"  This  is  Alexina  and  she 
Is  a  girl  but  she 
Plays  like  I  tell  her  and  she 
Cried  because  we  had  to  come  away 
And  this  is  Alexina" 


PART   THREE  295 

"  He  thinks,  your  son  does,"  said  Alexina, 
addressing  herself  to  the  Captain,  "that  he 
was  a  precocious  person,  whereas  he  was 
only—" 

"  Young,"  said  the  Captain. 

"Lamentably  egotistical,"  said  Alexina. 

"Give  it  to  me,"  said  Willy,  "my  picture 
and  my  feelings  thereon." 

" No,"  said  the  girl;  "  I  want  it." 

"Yes."  He  said  it  with  the  King  WiU 
liam  air.  She  made  a  little  mouth,  but  gave 
him  the  card,  which  lje  put  back  in  his  wal- 
let and  the  wallet  into  his  pocket.  ;'  You're 
welcome  to  a  copy  of  the  lines,"  he  said. 

Alexina,  bestowing  on  him  a  glance  of 
lofty  disdain,  departed,  high-headed,  into 
the  house. 

But  he  ran  after  her  and  stooped,  that  he 
might  look  into  her  face;  was  he  laughing 
at  her? 


296  THE    HOUSE    OF   FULFILMENT 

"Oh,"  she  said,  and  wheeled  upon  him, 
but  had  to  laugh  too,  such  was  the  high 

glee  behind  the  sweet  gravity  on  William  Le- 

i 

roy's  countenance.  Glee  there  was,  yet, 
too,  something  else  in  the  dark  eyes  laugh- 
ing at  her,  something  unconsciously  warm 
and  caressing. 

The  girl  ran  quickly  up-stairs. 

And  William  Leroy,  brought  to  himself, 
stood  where  she  left  him.  The  hand  on  the 
newel-post  suddenly  closed  hard  upon  it, 
then  he  straightened  and  walked  into  the 
parlour,  and,  sitting  down,  stared  at  the  em- 
bers of  the  wood  fire,  as  one  bewildered. 
Then  his  head  lifted  as  with  one  who  under- 
stands. On  his  face  was  a  strange  look  and 
a  light. 


CHAPTER   SIX 

Alexina  went  up  to  her  mother  and  Mrs. 
Leroy.  Molly  was  lolling  in  a  big  chair  in 
the  sunshine,  idly  swinging  the  tassel  of  her 
wrapper  to  and  fro.  The  shadows  about 
her  eyes  were  other  than  those  lent  by  the 
sweep  of  her  child-like  lashes,  and  she  look- 
ed wan.  But  she  looked  at  peace,  too.  In 
her  present  state  the  flow  of  Mrs.  Leroy's 
personal  chat  was  entertainment.  Now, 
there  was  always  one  central  theme  to  Char- 
lotte's talk,  whatever  the  variations. 

"He  hasn't  a  bit  of  false  pride,  Willy 
hasn't,"  she  was  stating.  "After  his  father 
lost  his  position,  those  two  years  before  the 


298  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

trees  began  paying,  there's  nothing  Willy 
wouldn't  turn  his  hand  to.  He  carried  a 
chain  for  the  surveyors  and  went  as  guide 
for  parties  hunting  and  fishing  in  the 
glades." 

Molly's  attention  sometimes  wandered 
from  these  maternal  confidences. 

"  You  were  Charlotte  Ransome  before  you 
were  married,  weren't  you?"  she  asked  ir- 
relevantly. "  You  used  to  come  to  New  Or- 
leans winters,  didn't  you  ?  You  were  at  a 
party  at  my  Uncle  Randolph's  once  when 
I  was  a  girl  and  you  were  spoken  of  as  a 
great  beauty,  I  remember.  There  was  a 
pompon  head-dress  too,  one  winter,  called 
the  Charlotte  Ransome." 

The  Charlotte  listening,  only  the  vivacity 
of  smile  and  eyes  left  of  her  beauty,  the 
Charlotte  living  the  obscure  life  of  a  little 
raw  Southern  town,  let  her  needle  fall, 


PART   THREE  299 

the  needle  she  handled  with  the  awkward- 
ness of  a  craft  acquired  late.  She  was  darn- 
ing an  old  tablecloth,  come  down  from  her 
mother's  day,  that  day  when  triumphs  and 
adulation  made  up  life,  and  when  cost  or 
reckoning  was  a  thing  she  troubled  not  her- 
self about.  She  was  that  Charlotte  Ran- 
some  again,  called  up  by  Mrs.  Gamier,  the 
beauty,  the  fashion,  and  the  belle. 

"Oh,"  she  said,  "the  joy  of  youth,  the 
joy!  Old  Madame  d'Arblay,  the  Louis- 
ville milliner,  devised  that  pompon  head- 
dress out  of  her  own  cleverness,  and  I  re- 
member my  old  Aunt  Polly  Ann  Love  tried 
to  talk  her  down  on  the  price.  How  it 
comes  back,  the  intoxication  of  it,  and  the 
living.  Drink  deep,  little  Mab,  it  never 
offers  twice.  I  seemed  to  have  divined  it 
never  would  be  again.'* 

The  girl  looked  from  one  woman  to  the 


300  THE    HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

other.  Molly  still  pursued  this  thing  called 
adulation,  and  Mrs.  Leroy,  big-hearted, 
simple-souled  as  she  was,  looked  yearningly 
back  on  that  which  was  gone. 

Was  this  all,  then  ?  Was  life  forever  after 
empty,  except  as  with  Mrs.  Leroy,  of  duties 
that  occupied  but  did  not  satisfy?  And 
what  of  women  who  are  neither  beauties  nor 
belles  ?  What  has  life  to  offer  them  ? 

A  vast  depression  came  over  the  girl.  And 
was  this  all?  Both  women  bore  witness 
that  it  was. 

"I  heard  tell  in  those  days,"  Molly  was 
saying  to  Mrs.  Leroy,  "of  a  dozen  men  in 
the  South  you  might  have  married.  How 
did  you  come" — curiously-  "in  the  end 
to  marry  Captain  Leroy,  so  much  older,  and 
so  quiet,  and  —  er  — 

Charlotte  was  too  simple  to  resent  the 
question,  which  to  her  meant  only  affection- 


PART  THREE  301 

ate  interest.  Besides,  she  was  an  egotist, 
and  livened  under  talk  of  herself.  She  had 
no  concealment;  indeed,  had  she  been  cog- 
nizant of  any  skeleton  in  the  family  closet,  it 
must  speedily  have  lost  its  gruesomeness  to 
her,  so  constantly  would  she  have  it  out,  an- 
notating its  anatomy  to  any  who  showed  in- 
terest. 

"  Because  he  came  to  us  in  our  trouble," 
said  Charlotte,  "to  mother  and  me  when 
father  died.  He  was  shot,  my  father,  you 
know,  in  a  political  quarrel  on  the  street  in 
Lexington,  the  year  before  the  war.  And 
Captain  Georges  came  to  us.  We'd  always 
known  him.  His  father  and  my  Uncle  Spotts- 
wood  Love  operated  the  first  brandy  dis- 
tillery in  Kentucky.  Captain  Georges  had 
brought  me  pretty  things  from  New  Orleans 
and  Paris  all  my  life.  I  meant  never  to 
marry,  then;  I'd  been  unhappy.  But  it 


302  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

turned  out  we  were  poor,  and  so  when 
Georges  said  for  me  to  marry  him  that  he 
might  care  for  mother  and  me,  why — " 

"  Oh,"  breathed  Alexina.  It  was  denun- 
ciation. Certain  scenes  of  childhood  had 
burned  into  her  memory,  which  she  had  in- 
terpreted later.  Molly  had  not  loved  dad- 
dy, either. 

"No  one  was  ever  so  good,  so  nobly,  gen- 
erously good  to  a  woman  as  Georges  has 
been  to  me,"  Mrs.  Leroy  was  saying;  "and 
even  in  our  poverty  he  and  Willy  have  man- 
aged, and  kept  it  somehow  from  me,  and 
long,  oh,  long  ago,  I  came  to  love  him 
dearly." 

The  young  arraigner,  hearing,  gazed  un- 
convinced. She  pushed  the  weight  of  her 
hair  back  off  her  forehead,  as  she  always  did 
when  impatient.  "  Came  to  love  him  dear- 
ly. "  With  that  mere  affection  which  grows 


PART  THREE  303 

from  association,  and  dependence  and  habit. 
The  girl  sitting  on  the  window-sill  in  the 
sunshine  drew  a  long  breath.  There  was 
more  in  life  than  these  two  had  found;  all 
unknowingly,  they  had  proved  it. 


CHAPTER   SEVEN 

Charlotte  kept  them  with  her  the  week,  then 
Molly  turned  restless. 

"I  can't  stand  hearing  another  thing 
about  Willy,  Malise,"  she  declared.  "I 
think  he's  a  very  dictatorial  and  outspoken 
person  myself." 

So  Molly  and  Alexina  and  Celeste  went 
back  to  the  hotel,  which  had  filled  during 
the  week  of  their  absence.  There  was  life 
and  bustle  in  the  halls  as  they  went  in  and, 
from  their  windows  up-stairs,  they  could  see 
the  lake  gay  with  sailboats. 

The  talk  down-stairs  concerned  dances, 
picnics,  fishing  parties.  The  somnolent 


PART   THREE  305 

Molly  awoke,  languor  fell  from  her  and  she 
stepped  to  the  centre  of  the  gay  little 
whirl,  the  embodied  spirit  of  festivity.  Mr. 
Henderson,  incongruous  element,  was  there, 
too,  with  deliberate  election  it  would  seem, 
for  Molly's  eyes  did  no  inviting  or  encourag- 
ing. She  did  not  need  him  in  capacity  of 
attendant  or  diverter  these  days,  and  it  was 
clear  that  in  any  other  capacity  he  embar- 
rassed her.  But  he  was  not  deterred  be- 
cause of  that. 

'You  are  coming  to  church,  remember," 
he  told  her  on  Sunday  morning. 

Molly  did  not  even  play  at  archness  with 
him  now;  she  looked  timid.  And  at  the 
hour  she  went,  and  Alexina  with  her.  They 
had  heard  him  officiate  before,  and  it  seemed 
the  mere  performance  of  the  law;  but  into 
the  dogmatic  assertions  of  his  discourse  to- 
day glowed  that  fire  which  is  called  inspira- 


306  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

tion.  The  Reverend  Henderson  was  living 
these  days. 

Molly,  slim  and  elegant  in  her  finery, 
moved  once  or  twice  in  the  pew.  Alexina 
could  not  quite  tell  if  she  was  listening.  But 
she  was.  "Dear  me,"  she  said,  from  under 
the  shadow  of  her  lace  parasol,  as  they 
walked  home,  "  how  wearing  it  must  be  to 
be  so  —  er  —  intense."  She  spoke  lightly, 
but  she  shivered  a  little.  The  Reverend 
Henderson  had  laid  stress  upon  his  text, 
" In  the  midst  of  life  we  are  in  death!" 

As  they  went  up  the  hotel  steps  Molly 
turned  and  looked  around  her  and  Alexina 
turned  too,  since  it  was  Molly's  mood.  The 
sky  was  blue,  the  air  breathed  with  life  and 
glow  and  sparkle.  There  was  a  taste  almost 
of  sea  about  it.  On  the  prim  young  orange 
trees  about  the  new  houses  across  the  street 
the  fruit  hung  golden. 


307 

-  Father 

Bonot  did,"  said  Molly,  slowly,  "before  I 
was  tall  enough.  They're  sweeter  —  Louis- 
iana oranges  are.  I  used  to  run  and  hide 
behind  his  skirts,  too,  when  I  was  afraid  my 
mother  was  going  to  whip  me." 

They  went  in.  Half  way  up  the  stairs 
Molly  paused.  "You  Blairs,  you're  all  like 
him  —  not  like  Father  Bonot." 

"Like  who ?"  asked  Alexina. 

"Like  Mr.  Henderson.  You  Blairs  and 
Mr.  Henderson  would  have  pulled  aside 
your  skirts  so  my  mother  could  have  caught 
me  and  whipped  me." 

Something  like  apprehension  sprang  into 
Alexina's  eyes.  "Oh,"  she  said  anxiously, 
"no;  surely  I'm  not  like  that,  and  Aunt 
Harriet's  not!" 

'Yes,  you  are,"  said  Molly  stubbornly, 
"you  all  of  you  are.  It's  because"  —  a 


808  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

sort  of  childish  rage  seized  on  her  -  "  it's 
because  you're  all  of  you  so  —  so  damnably 
sure  of  your  duty."  And  Molly's  foot 
stamped  the  landing  in  her  little  fury. 

It  was  funny,  so  funny  that  Alexina 
laughed.  And  perhaps  it  was  true.  She 
could  have  hugged  Molly;  she  never  came 
so  near  to  being  fond  of  Molly  before. 

December  arrived,  Christmas  came  and 
went.  Life  was  almost  pastoral  —  no, 
hardly  that;  it  was  more  un  fete  champetre. 
Each  day  after  breakfast  the  hotel  emptied 
itself  into  the  sunshine  and  merriment,  emp- 
tied itself,  that  is,  of  all  but  the  invalids. 
Molly  shunned  these.  She  never  even  look- 
ed the  way  of  one  if  she  could  help  it. 
-  There  was  a  lake  party  one  night.  They 
took  boat  at  the  hotel  pier  in  various  small 
craft  and  followed  the  chain  of  lakes  to  an 


PART   THREE  309 

island  midway  of  the  farthest.  The  moon 
was  up  as  they  started. 

The  party  was  of  the  gayest,  and  one 
might  have  said  that  Mr.  Henderson  was 
out  of  his  element.  Certainly  his  face  was 
hardly  suggestive  of  hilarity.  But  he  fol- 
lowed Mrs.  Gamier  into  one  of  the  larger 
boats  and  took  his  place  with  a  sort  of  dog- 
gedness.  Even  in  the  moonlight  the  sharp- 
ening angle  of  his  cheek-bone  was  visible, 
and  the  deepening  of  the  sockets  in  which 
his  eyes  were  set,  eyes  that  followed  Mrs. 
Gamier  insistently. 

Molly  being  of  the  party,  it  followed  that 
Alexina  was,  too,  but  that  William  Leroy  was 
of  it  seemed  to  quicken  something  in  his  own 
sense  of  humour.  His  manner  with  the  gay 
world  was  perhaps  a  little  stony.  He  avow- 
ed, when  thus  accused  by  Alexina  and  Mr. 
Jonas,  that  it  was  to  cover  bashfulness. 


310  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

"I  hate  people,"  he  declared. 

Yet,  foT  a  bashful  youth,  he  was  singularly 
deliberate  and  masterful,  seeming  to  know 
what  he  wanted  and  how  to  get  it.  To- 
night it  was  that  Alexina  go  with  him  in  a 
small  boat.  The  others  started  first,  a 
youth  in  a  striped  flannel  coat,  strumming  a 
guitar. 

King  put  out  last.  He  rowed  slowly  and 
often  the  boat  drifted.  When  they  entered 
the  lock  connecting  the  first  lake  with  the 
next,  the  other  boats  had  all  passed  through. 
The  moon  scarcely  penetrated  the  dense 
foliage  on  the  banks  above  them,  and  the 
ripple  of  the  water  against  the  boat  seemed 
only  to  emphasize  the  silence,  the  aloof- 
ness. There  must  have  been  an  early  blos- 
som of  jasmine  about,  so  sweet  was  the 
gloom. 

When  they  passed  out  into  the  vaulted 


PART  THREE  311 

space  and  open  water  of  the  next  lake,  the 
other  boats  were  far  ahead.  The  tinkling 
cadence  of  the  guitar  floated  back  to  them. 

He  rowed  lazily  on.  Presently  he  spoke. 
"  I  wonder  if  you  remember  how  we  used  to 
talk,  'way  back  yonder,  about  the  Land  of 
Colchis?" 

"Yes,"  said  Alexina;  "I  remember." 

"I  believe  we  are  there  at  last.  We 
closed  the  contract  for  our  oranges  to-day. 
It's  pretty  fair  gold,  the  fruit  in  Colchis. 
We  pick  for  delivery  on  Monday." 

He  never  had  talked  to  her  of  personal 
affairs  before,  it  was  Mrs.  Leroy  who  had 
told  her  what  she  knew. 

"There  are  several  purchasers  looking  at 
the  place  we  are  going  to  sell,  for  dwellers  in 
Colchis,  you  know,  are  only  sojourners; 
they  long  for  home." 

"The  Jasons,  too?" 


312  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

"This  Jason  at  any  rate.  He  wants 
four  seasons  to  his  year,  and  to  hear  his 
horse's  feet  on  pike,  and  to  put  his  seed  into 
loam." 

They  slipped  through  the  next  lock  and 
out  upon  the  long  length  of  Cherokee,  the 
lake  of  the  island  which  was  their  destina- 
tion. It  seemed  to  bring  self-consciousness 
upon  the  speaker. 

'You  are  so  the  same  as  you  used  to  be," 
he  said,  "I  forget.  How  do  I  know  you 
want  to  hear  all  this  ?" 

"You  do  know,"  said  Alexina,  honestly. 

He  did  not  answer.  They  were  coming  up 
to  the  other  boats  now,  beached  at  the  island. 
Lights  were  flickering  up  and  down  the  sand 
and  the  rosy  glare  of  a  beach  fire  shone  out 
from  under  the  darkness  of  the  trees. 
Figures  were  moving  between  it  and  them 
and  they  could  hear  voices  and  laughter. 


PART   THREE  313 

;*You  do  know,"  repeated  the  girl. 

They  had  grounded.  He  was  shipping 
the  oars.  Then  he  got  up  and  held  out  a 
hand  to  steady  her.  She,  standing,  put  hers 
into  it.  They  did  not  look  at  each  other. 

"  Yes,"  he  said,  "  I  do  know.  You're  too 
honest  to  pretend." 

He  helped  her  along  and  out  upon  the 
sand.  There  was  a  negro  boy  awaiting  to 
take  charge  of  the  boat.  They  went  up  the 
slight  declivity.  He  had  not  loosed  her 
hand,  she  had  not  withdrawn  it.  The 
laughter,  the  chat,  the  aroma  of  boiling 
coffee,  the  rattle  of  dishes  being  unpacked 
reached  them.  They  stood  for  a  moment 
in  the  shadow,  then  her  hand  left  his  and 
they  went  to  join  the  others. 

The  dozen  men  and  women  were  grouped 
about  the  pine-knot  fire,  for  the  warmth  was 
grateful. 


314  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

There  was  badinage  and  sally,  light, 
foolish  stuff,  perhaps,  but  flung  like  shining 
nebulae  along  the  way  by  youth  in  its  whirl 
of  mere  being.  It  is  good  to  know  how  to 
be  frivolous  sometimes.  Alexina  felt  the 
exhilaration  of  sudden  gaiety,  daring.  She 
sat  down  by  the  youth  with  the  guitar  and 
the  striped  flannel  coat. 

"'And  both  were  young,  and  one  was  beautiful,' ' 

warbled  the  owner  to  his  guitar,  making 
room  for  her.  "  Right  here,  Miss  Blair,  by 
me." 

More  than  one  presently  stole  a  look  at 
the  tall,  rather  handsome  Miss  Blair,  hither- 
to conceded  reserved  and  different  from  her 
mother.  She  was  laughing  contagiously 
with  the  youth,  and  in  the  end  she  gained 
the  guitar  over  which  they  were  wrangling. 
She  knew  a  thing  or  two  about  a  guitar 


PART  THREE  315 

herself,  it  seemed  —  Charlotte  Leroy  could 
have  explained  how  —  as  many  chords  as 
the  owner  anyhow.  But  the  young  Leroy, 
it  would  appear,  was  sulky,  certainly  unso- 
ciable, sitting  there,  removed  to  the  out- 
skirts of  things,  to  smoke  and  stare  at  the 
moon.  Yet  never  once  did  the  girl  look  his 
way.  It  was  enough  that  they  were  to  re- 
turn together. 

Nor  was  she  paying  attention  to  Molly 
either.  There  are  times  when  the  mad  leap 
and  rush  of  one's  own  blood  absorbs  all  con- 
sciousness. 

Molly  was  gay,  too,  feverishly  gay.  Some 
one  had  brewed  a  hot  something  for  the 
delectation  and  comforting  of  the  chilly 
ones,  and  Molly's  thin  little  hand  was  hold- 
ing out  her  picnic  cup  as  often  as  any  one 
would  fill  it.  It  was  Mr.  Jonas  who  pres- 
ently took  the  cup  away  and  tried  to 


316  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

wipe  a  stain  off  the  pretty  dress  with  his 
handkerchief. 

When  the  start  homeward  was  made, 
King  came  over  to  Alexina. 

"  I  have  to  ask  you  to  change  to  the  large 
boat  going  back,"  he  said,  a  little  stiffly 
perhaps;  "Mr.  Jonas  is  taking  Mrs.  Gar- 
nier  in  the  small  one,  and  Mr.  Henderson 
says  he  will  see  to  you." 

When  she  answered  her  voice  was  lightly 
nonchalant. 

"Why  not?"  she  said,  absorbed  in  put- 
ting on  her  jacket. 

She  took  her  place  in  the  boat  by  Mr. 
Henderson.  Evidently  the  evening  had 
gone  wrong  with  him,  for  his  face  was 
ghastly  in  the  moonlight,  and  his  long, 
nervous  fingers  never  stopped  fingering  the 
little  gold  cross  hanging  below  the  line  of 
his  vest. 


PART   THREE  317 

William  Leroy  did  not  return  with  the  par- 
ty at  all.  Not  that  she  was  concerned  with 
that,  Alexina  assured  herself  proudly,  it  was 
only  that  she  could  not  help  hearing  the 
others  wondering  at  his  entering  a  boat  with 
the  negro  boy  and  rowing  swiftly  away  up 
the  lake.  It  was  clear  to  her.  Lake  Nancy 
would  have  been  the  next  lake  on  the  chain 
had  the  channel  been  cut.  He  meant  to  tramp 
across  home  to  save  himself  the  trouble  of 
going  back  to  town.  She  did  not  think  he 
had  very  good  manners  at  any  rate.  Yet, 
when  the  boats  came  in  at  the  hotel  pier,  it 
was  William  Leroy  who  met  them.  He 
waited  for  Alexina  and  walked  with  her  a 
little  ahead  of  the  others  up  through  the 
yard. 

"Mrs.  Gamier  is  not  well,"  he  told  her. 
"  I  went  home  and  drove  in  and  Mr.  Jonas 
is  putting  her  in  the  wagon  now.  We'll  take 


318  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

her  out  to  mother;  she's  all  upset  over 
something." 

She  stopped  short,  having  forgotten  her 
mother.  "I  can't  let  you,"  she  declared; 
"  it  isn't  right  to  Mrs.  Leroy." 

"Mother's  waiting,"  he  said.  "You'd 
better  go  in  and  say  something  to  somebody, 
and  get  Celeste." 

Mrs.  Leroy  said  that  people  always 
obeyed  the  King  William  tone.  Alexina 
stood,  hesitating.  He  waited. 

Then  she  went. 

He  was  in  the  wagonette  when  she  and 
Celeste  came  out.  The  place  was  still  and 
deserted,  even  Mr.  Jonas  gone,  for  which 
Alexina  was  grateful. 

Molly  was  on  the  back  seat,  and  Celeste, 
gaunt  and  taciturn,  started  to  mount  beside 
her. 

Molly    protested.     "Not    you,    mammy; 


PART   THREE  319 

go  in  front.  I  want  Malise  —  not  the  big 
Malise,  you  know  —  the  little  one." 

The  girl,  taking  the  wraps  from  the  old 
woman,  got  in  by  her  mother  and  began  to 
put  a  shawl  about  her.  The  dew  was  fall- 
ing heavily.  Molly  touched  her  hand. 
"Once  Alexander  said  to  me,  'Let  Malise 
keep  tight  hold  on  you,  Molly. ' 

William  Leroy  was  flicking  the  mules 
travelling  briskly  through  the  sandy  streets, 
and  talking  to  the  old  woman,  but  she  was 
sullen  and  the  conversation  died. 

Alexina's  heart  was  choking  her.  Her 
father  —  daddy  —  Molly  had  spoken  to  her 
of  daddy. 

And  all  the  while  Molly  was  talking  on, 
feverishly,  incessantly.  'You  must  keep 
him  away,  Malise,  that  minister,  he  worries 
me  and  his  eyes  make  me  uncomfortable,  fol- 
lowing me.  He  makes  me  remember  things, 


320  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

and  I  don't  want  to.  He  says  it's  his  duty. 
He  said  to-night  I'm  not  going  to  get  well 
and  that  he  had  to  tell  me  in  order  to  save 
me  from  myself.  Make  him  keep  away 
from  me,  Malise ;  I'm  afraid  of  him.  I  took 
it,  that,  to-night,  to  forget  what  he  said; 
say  it  isn't  so,  Malise  —  say  it." 

Willy  leaned  back  over  the  seat,  talking 
in  steady,  everyday  fashion.  "There's  the 
moon  setting  ahead  of  us;  see  it,  Mrs. 
Garnier?  Everything's  so  still,  you  say? 
Why,  no;  it's  not  so  still.  There  is  a  cock 
crowing  somewhere,  and  that  must  be  a  go- 
pher scuttling  under  the  palmetto.  Now, 
look  backward.  See  that  line  of  light  ?  It's 
the  dawn." 


CHAPTER   EIGHT 

The  next  evening  at  Nancy,  an  hour  or  two 
after  supper,  King  William  was  tapping  at 
Mrs.  Garnier's  door,  which  was  ajar 

"She  is  asleep,"  warned  Alexina  from 
within. 

"Then  come  on  out,"  he  begged,  "the 
moon's  up." 

"Go  on,"  Mrs.  Leroy  told  her,  "Willy 
wants  you,"  which  to  Charlotte  was  reason 
for  all  things. 

"It's  windy,"  he  called  softly,  "bring  a 
wrap." 

The  girl  came,  bringing  her  reefer  jacket 
and  her  Tarn  and  put  them  on  in  the  hall. 


322  THE    HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

The  jacket  was  blue,  the  Tarn  was  scarlet, 
and  both  were  jaunty.  He  regarded  her  in 
them  with  satisfaction. 

"Now,  there,"  said  he,  with  King  Wil- 
liam approval,  "  I  like  that." 

They  went  down  and  out.  She  was  tired, 
she  said,  so  they  sat  on  the  bench  under  the 
wild  orange.  The  moss,  drooping  from  the 
branches,  fluttered  above  them.  The  wind 
was  fitful,  lifting  and  dying.  It  was  a  grey 
night,  with  scattered  mists  lying  low  over  the 
lake,  while  a  shoal  of  little  clouds  were  slip- 
ping across  the  face  of  the  moon. 

"It's  been  too  soft  and  warm,"  said  he; 
"it  can't  last." 

But  Alexina  shivered  a  little,  for  there 
was  a  chill  whenever  the  wind  rose. 

"Walk  down  to  the  pier,"  he  begged, 
"  and  back.  Then  you  shall  go  in." 

The  path  led  through  the  grove.     Stop- 


PART  THREE  323 

ping  to  select  an  orange  for  her,  he  passed 
his  hand  almost  caressingly  up  and  down  a 
limb  of  the  tree. 

"And  you  begin  to  pick  the  oranges 
Monday  ?"  said  Alexina. 

"Monday." 

"And  this  is  Thursday." 

They  walked  on.  He  was  peeling  away 
the  yellow  rind  that  she  might  have  a  white 
cup  to  drink  from. 

"I  won't  be  here  to  see  the  picking,"  said 
Alexina.  "I  have  to  go  to  Kentucky  for 
two  weeks,  something  about  business.  Un- 
cle Austen  wrote  me  in  the  letter  you  brought 
out  to-day,  that  it  would  simplify  things  if 
I  could  come.  And  Emily  —  Emily  Car- 
ringf ord,  you  know  -  -  Uncle  Austen's  wife, 
wrote  too,  asking  me  to  stay  with  them." 

"  So,"  said  he,  "you  go—  " 

"Monday.     I've    been   talking   to   your 


324  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

mother,  and  she's  willing,  if  Captain  Leroy 
and  you  are;  I  came  out  to  ask  you  —  I 
am  always  to  be  asking  favors  of  your  family, 
it  seems  —  if  you  will  let  me  leave  Molly 
here  instead  of  at  the  hotel.  Celeste  can 
attend  to  everything." 

"Why  not?  "asked  Willy. 

"It's  —  it's  a  business  proposition,"  said 
Alexina.  But  it  took  a  bit  of  courage  to 
bring  it  out. 

"Is  it?  "said  he. 

"  Or  I  can't  do  it,  you  know." 

They  had  reached  the  lake  and  were 
sitting  like  children  on  the  edge  of  the 
pier.  The  water  was  ruffled,  the  incom- 
ing waves  white-crested,  and  the  wind 
was  soughing  a  little  around  the  boat-house 
behind  them.  He  was  breaking  bits  off 
a  twig  and  flinging  them  out  to  see  them 
drift  in. 


PART   THREE  325 

"  Great  country  this,"  he  said,  "that  can't 
produce  a  pebble  for  a  fellow  to  fling." 

He  looked  off  toward  the  shining,  shadowy 
distance,  where  the  moon  gleamed  against 
the  mists.  "You  are"  —  then  he  changed 
the  form  of  his  question  -  "  are  you  very 
rich?" 

"  Leave  the  very  out,  and,  yes,  I  suppose 
I  am  rich,"  said  Alexina. 

"You  are  so  —  well  —  yourself,"  he  said, 
"sometimes  I  find  myself  forgetting  it." 

The  girl  swallowed  once,  twice,  as  if 
from  effort  to  speak.  She  was  looking  off, 
too,  against  the  far  shore.  "  Is  it  a  thing  to 
have  to  be  remembered  ?"  then  she  asked. 

"Isn't  it?"  said  King  William,  turning  on 
her  suddenly.  There  was  a  sharp  harsh- 
ness in  his  tones.  "  I  wish  to  God  it  wasn't." 

She  got  up,  and  he  sprang  up,  too,  facing 
her.  Suddenly  she  stamped  her  foot.  The 


326  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

wind,  rising  to  a  gale  now,  was  blowing  her 
hair  about  her  face  and  she  was  angry.  It 
made  her  beautiful.  She  might  have  been  a 
Valkyr,  tall,  wind-tossed. 

But  the  sob  in  her  voice  was  human. 
*'  I've  had  Uncle  Austen  say  such  things  to 
me  in  his  fear  I  might  let  other  people 
forget  it,  and  a  girl  I  cared  for  at  school  let 
it  come  between  us,  but  I  thought  you  -  -  I 
had  a  right  to  think  you  were  bigger.  Your 
mother  is,  oh,  yes,  she  is,  and  your  father  is. 
Not  that  I  despise  the  other,  either."  She 
lifted  her  head  defiantly.  "  It's  a  grand  and 
liberating  thing,  though  it  was  shackles  on 
me  in  Uncle  Austen's  hands.  I  don't  de- 
spise it;  I  couldn't;  but  that  it  should  have  to 
be  remembered  - 

"Just  so,"  said  Willy  Leroy,  in  his  fa- 
ther's phrase. 

Her  head  went  up  again  and  she  looked  at 


PART   THREE  327 

him  full,  straight,  then  turned  and  fled  tow- 
ards the  house. 

He  ran  after  her,  came  abreast,  and  after 
the  fashion  he  had,  stooped  to  see  into  her 
face.  "  Don't  go  away,  in  from  me  — 
mad,"  he  begged.  Was  he  laughing  ? 

"  But  I  am  mad,"  she  returned  promptly. 

"But  don't  go  in  either  way,"  he  said; 
"stay,  mad  if  you  will,  but  stay.  Oh, 
I'm  not  proud,"  he  was  breathing  hard 
again,  "  that  is  —  only  this  proud ;  I  shall 
build  onto  my  little  gold  of  Colchis  until  we 
stand  at  least  nearer  equal  —  and  then  — 

Each  looked  at  the  other,  with  defiance 
almost.  She  was  as  beautiful  as  Harriet 
Blair. 

"Then,"  said  the  girl,  "then  you'll  be 
that  far  less  my  equal.  Let  me  go."  And 
she  jerked  her  sleeve  from  his  hand  and  ran 
into  the  house. 


CHAPTER   NINE 

The  morning  after  dawned  sunless  and 
chill.  The  sky  was  a  pale  leaden,  below 
which  darker  masses  of  clouds  scurried. 
The  wind  blew  strong,  steady,  resistless. 
At  breakfast  they  all  sat  shivering. 

"Have  Pete  start  fires,"  said  King  Wil- 
liam to  Charlotte,  "  and  you  had  better 
move  Mrs.  Gamier  over  to  my  room  before 
night."  For  there  were  not  fire-places  in  all 
the  rooms. 

It  was  a  dreary  morning  every  way.  The 
breakfast  was  poor  and  scant.  Aunt  Man- 
dy  defended  herself.  "  Ev'y  thing  done  give 
out,"  she  declared.  "Mis'  Charlotte  been 


PART  THREE  329 

so  occapied  she  done  forgot  to  order  things 
f'om  town." 

Convicted,  Charlotte  looked  at  Willy,  then 
hastily  took  the  defensive.  "  Mandy  ought 
to  have  reminded  me,"  she  declared. 

"No,  ma'am,"  responded  Mandy.  "I 
done  quit  this  thing  uv  tellin'  an'  havin'  you 
say  things  give  out  too  soon." 

Willy  sat  stony.  The  Captain  shivered. 
One  realized  all  at  once  that  he  was  an  old 
man.  "The  thermometer  is  at  forty-six, 
King,"  he  remarked. 

"Yes,"  said  the  son,  "  and  falling." 

All  morning  it  fell.  At  noon  it  registered 
forty  degrees.  The  wind  still  swept  a  gale 
that  whistled  and  shrieked  at  the  corners  of 
the  house,  and  the  three  women  passed  the 
morning  in  Charlotte's  room,  shivering 
about  the  open  fire-place.  Pete  spent  his 
day  chopping  and  bringing  in  arm-loads  of 


330  THE    HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

fat  pine  wood.  All  the  sense  of  dissatisfac- 
tion with  Aden  returned.  Desolate  grey 
sand  is  a  hideous  exchange  for  sward,  and 
orange  trees  look  like  toys  from  a  Noah's 
ark. 

At  dinner  there  was  a  furrow  between 
King's  straight,  dark  brows.  "It's  thirty- 
eight,"  he  told  his  father,  "  and  falling.  It's 
clearing,  too." 

Afterwards  he  was  talking  to  Pete  in  the 
hall. 

"No,  sir,"  reiterated  Pete,  "we's  too  far 
below  the  line,  ain't  never  heard  of  sech  a 
thing  down  here." 

At  four  o'clock  King  came  in  to  say  he  was 
going  to  town.  "It's  down  to  thirty-four," 
he  told  his  father.  "I'm  going  in  and  tele- 
graph up  the  river  for  reports." 

"And  what  then,  son?"  asked  the  Cap- 
tain. "  What  can  you  do  ?  " 


PART  THREE  381 

It  was  a  hitherto  unexperienced  danger 
threatening  Aden.  But  youth  cannot  sit 
and  wait.  Alexina,  from  the  window  in 
Charlotte's  room,  saw  King  William  fling 
himself  on  his  horse  at  the  gate  and  gallop 
off.  The  wind  had  ceased.  The  live-oaks 
on  either  side  of  the  old  iron  gate  stood  mo- 
tionless, their  moss  hanging  in  dreary,  som- 
bre lengths.  There  was  no  sound  of  bird  or 
insect.  And  it  was  cold  —  cold.  Alexina  had 
a  jacket  over  her  woollen  dress,  for  Aden 
houses  are  not  built  for  cold,  which  poured 
in  at  casements,  beneath  doors,  at  keyholes. 
Molly,  on  the  couch  drawn  up  to  the  fire, 
coughed  and  coughed  again.  Alexina  went 
to  her.  "I'm  cold,"  she  complained;  "and 
how  dreary  it  is." 

It  had  cleared  and  the  sky  was  a  pale, 
chilly  blue.  The  sun  set  in  a  yellow  pallor. 
The  night  fell. 


332  THE   HOUSE    OF   FULFILMENT 

King  came  in  and  warmed  his  hands  at 
the  parlour  fire.  Alexina  and  Charlotte  had 
come  down  now. 

"Thirty-two,"  he  told  his  father,  "and 
falling." 

Neither  the  Captain  nor  his  son  ate  much 
supper,  but  near-sighted  Charlotte,  al> 
sorbed  in  things  at  hand,  seemed  uncon- 
scious of  anything  more  amiss  than  discom- 
fort from  the  cold.  After  supper  the  son 
disappeared. 

Molly  was  coughing  sadly.  They  had 
moved  her  bed  across  to  Willy's  sitting-room, 
and  a  fire  crackled  on  the  stone  hearth;  but 
it  was  to  be  one  of  the  nights  when  she  would 
not  sleep,  or  but  fitfully,  and  when  Celeste 
and  Alexina  would  not  sleep  either.  At 
nine  o'clock  they  persuaded  her  to  bed. 

"  But  talk,  Malise,  you  and  mammy  talk. 
I  don't  have  chance  to  think  when  people 


PART  THREE  833 

keep   on   talking;   and,   mammy,   rub   my 

hands ;  it  helps,  to  have  some  one  rub  them." 
At  ten  she  wanted  a  drink  of  water.  Al- 
exina  went  to  the  window  where  she  had  set 
a  tumbler  outside.  The  night  was  still  and 
clear,  the  stars  glittering.  The  moon  would 
rise  soon  now.  How  large  the  grove  showed 
itself  from  this  south  window,  stretching 
away  to  the  southwest  around  the  curving 
shores  of  Nancy.  As  Alexina  opened  the 
window  she  shivered,  despite  the  heavy  wool 
of  her  white  wrapper.  As  she  took  in  the 
glass  —  was  it  ?  Yes,  over  the  surface  of 
the  water  radiated  a  ferny,  splintery  film, 
which  was  ice. 

Molly,  feverish  and  restless,  drank  it 
thirstily,  and  said  it  was  good,  but  it  roused 
her  so  that  she  began  to  talk  again. 

"He  said  I  couldn't  prevent  his  praying 
for  me,"  she  was  harping  on  the  minister. 


884  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

"For  my  soul,"  she  laughed  uneasily.  "I 
told  him  to  let  my  soul  alone.  It's  perfectly 
funny,  Malise,  that  I've  got  to  be  prayed 
over  when  I  don't  want  to  be." 

The  night  wore  on.  Celeste  was  nodding, 
even  while  her  brown  hands  went  on  rub- 
bing up  and  down  the  slim  white  wrist  and 
arm. 

The  wood  on  the  andirons  broke  and  fell 
apart.  The  room  grew  shadowy.  "  Build  it 
up,  Malise,"  begged  Molly;  "I  like  it  light." 

There  was  no  more  wood  up-stairs.  It 
was  past  twelve  o'clock  and  the  house  was 
still.  Alexina  opened  the  door  into  the  hall. 
A  lamp  in  case  of  need,  because  of  Molly, 
was  burning  on  a  stand.  Alexina  had  re- 
membered that  there  was  wood  piled  on 
the  parlour  hearth.  Her  slippers  were 
noiseless. 

Down-stairs  she  paused,  then  tip-toed  to 


PART   THREE  335 

the  front  door.  The  big  thermometer  and 
barometer  in  one  hung  against  a  side  of  the 
recess  and  could  be  seen  through  the  glass 
side-lights.  It  was  bright  moonlight  now, 
the  shadows  of  the  rose  vine  clear  cut  on  the 
porch  floor.  She  looked  at  the  thermom- 
eter. 

She  looked  again. 

It  had  come,  then,  what  never  had  come 
to  Aden  before.  From  the  talk  of  the  day 
she  had  gleaned  enough  to  know  that  the 
fruit  hanging  on  William  Leroy's  trees  was 
but  so  much  sodden,  worthless  pulp. 

She  turned  back  towards  the  parlour  where 
the  firelight  was  flickering  out  the  doorway, 
then  stopped.  He  was  in  his  father's  chair 
before  the  hearth.  His  elbow  was  on  his 
knee  and  the  hand  on  which  his  chin  was 
propped  was  clenched.  The  flame  flared 
up.  His  face  was  haggard  and  harsh. 


836  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

She  fled  back  up-stairs.  Molly  had  fallen 
asleep,  Celeste  was  nodding. 

The  girl  shut  the  door  and  dropped  in  a 
little  heap  on  the  bearskin  before  the  fire. 
She  was  shivering,  but  in  her  eyes,  fixed  on 
the  embers,  was  a  yearning,  brooding  light 
that  made  them  beautiful.  Then  suddenly 
she  hid  her  face  in  her  hands,  her  head 
bowed  on  her  knees,  and  began  to  sob. 


CHAPTER  TEN 

The  Captain,  Mrs.  Leroy  and  Alexina,  on 
the  gallery,  watched  King  as  he  trudged 
across  the  yard.  He  was  going  for  his  horse 
that  he  might  take  a  telegram  into  Aden  for 
Alexina,  who  was  to  leave  the  following 
morning. 

He  trudged  sturdily  and  was  whistling 
under  his  breath  as  he  went. 

"  But  it's  a  debt  —  I  owe  it  to  you,"  said 
the  girl  suddenly,  turning  on  the  Captain. 
She  spoke  with  vehemence,  entreaty,  pas- 
sion. 

"We  put  that  aside  the  other  day — dis- 
cussed," said  the  Captain  gently. 


338  THE   HOUSE    OF   FULFILMENT 

"  You  did,"  declared  the  girl;  "but  not  - 
you  can't  say  I  did.     And  Mrs.  Leroy  saw 
the  right,  the  justice  of  it,  when  I  talked  to 
her  up-stairs." 

"  But  I  hadn't  heard  Georges  then,"  Char- 
lotte hastened  to  say,  "and  I  see  now  how 
you're  trying  to  make  a  purely  business  af- 
fair a  personal  one."  Poor  Charlotte,  she 
did  not  see  anything  of  the  kind;  she  was 
quoting  the  Captain. 

"But  it  is  a  debt,"  declared  the  girl,  cry- 
ing a  little  against  her  will,  "and  you  have 
no  right  to  refuse  me.  The  whole  trans- 
action was  a  taking  advantage,  and  hard, 
and  mean ;  it  was  the  pound  of  flesh,  and  you 
said,  Mrs.  Leroy,  that  if  the  grove  could  be 
held  a  year  or  two,  and  not  sacrificed  right 
away- 

"The  boy  will  fight  that  part  out,"  said 
the  Captain.  The  words  sounded  final,  but 


PART   THREE  339 

the  hand  laid  on  the  girlish  one  clasping  the 
arm  of  his  chair  made  it  right. 

"How  can  he?"  she  insisted,  with  stub- 
bornness. 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  the  father. 

The  three  sat  silent.  King,  waving  his 
hat  at  them  as  he  rode  around,  stooped  from 
his  horse,  opened  the  gate  and  went  through. 
He  was  not  a  person  to  be  offered  sympathy. 
Right  now  he  was  absorbingly  cheerful. 

"But  Mrs.  Leroy  admitted,"  Alexina  be- 
gan again,  her  under  lip  trembling. 

"No,  Alexina,"  said  Charlotte  hastily; 
"I  didn't.  Or  I  ought  not  to  have,"  she 
added  honestly.  "I've  never  set  myself 
against  Georges  in  things  concerning  Willy 
since  we  came  down  here.  We  talked  it  out 
then,  Georges  and  I.  It's  been  hard  to  see 
Willy  fighting  things;  he  was  born  imperi- 
ous, but  he's  used  to  battling  now.  I  see 


340  THE   HOUSE    OF   FULFILMENT 

what  Georges  meant.  It's  better  for  people 
to  learn  how  to  battle.  If  I  had  ever  been 
taught  — " 

The  sun  was  slanting  in  under  the  old, 
wild  orange  tree  on  to  the  gallery.  Again  the 
three  sat  silent.  Then  out  of  the  silence  the 
Captain  spoke.  He  was  an  old  man  who 
had  laid  down  the  burden  of  labour  to  lift 
and  carry  the  heavier  load  of  inaction  in 
silence,  as  he  had  carried  the  other.  His 
tone  was  impersonal. 

"There  was  a  giant  wrestler,  one  Antaeus 
of  Lybia,  if  I  remember  my  classics,  Alexina. 
King  used  to  lie  on  the  rug  when  you  both 
were  children  and  read  you  about  him.  So 
many  times  as  this  Antaeus  was  brought 
to  earth,  he  arose  renewed,  if  I  recall.  The 
boy  must  wrestle  with  his  own  fate.'* 


CHAPTER   ELEVEN 

On  entering  Uncle  Austen's  house,  self-con- 
sciousness and  constraint  closed  in  like  bars 
across  the  door  of  spontaneity.  Alexina 
had  arrived  the  night  before  and  they  were 
at  breakfast.  Uncle  Austen  was  facetiously 
affable,  and  his  sportive  sallies,  not  being 
natural  with  him,  embarrassed  his  audience. 
There  is  something  almost  pitiable  in  the 
sight  of  middle-age  grown  playful. 

Emily,  Uncle  Austen's  wife  —  embarrass- 
ing realization  in  itself  —  looked  in  her  plate 
constrainedly,  so  that  Alexina,  ft  only  that 
his  further  playfulness  might  be  prevented, 
threw  herself  into  the  conversation  and  chat- 


342  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

tered  volubly,  but  in  vain,  for  Uncle  Austen 
found  chance  to  reply. 

There  was  complacency  in  his  facetious- 
ness,  too.  He  had  married  him  a  wife,  and 
the  pride  of  the  thing  coming  to  him  this 
late  made  him  a  little  absurd,  and  yet, 
Alexina  reflected,  he  was  a  man  of  big 
ability  and  varied  interests,  prominent  in 
whatever  large  enterprises  the  city  boasted, 
banks,  railroads,  bridges;  a  power  in  the 
Republican  party  of  his  state,  his  name 
standing  for  respectability,  wealth,  and  con- 
servatism. 

"  I'm  taking  pretty  good  care  of  your  old 
friend  Emily,  Alexina  ?"  Uncle  Austen  was 
demanding  playfully,  as  he  arose  from  the 
table;  "she's  standing  transplanting  pretty 
well,  eh?" 

Emily  got  up  abruptly,  so  abruptly  her 
chair  would  have  turned  over  but  for  his 


PART   THREE  843 

quickness  in  getting  there  to  catch  it,  but 
his  good  humour  was  proof  even  against  this, 
though  he  ordinarily  frowned  at  awkward- 
ness. He  set  the  chair  in  place,  and  taking 
Emily's  hand  as  they  all  went  from  the 
room,  patted  it  ostentatiously.  Alexina 
grew  hot. 

"A  pretty  hand,  a  hand  for  a  man  to  be 
proud  to  own,  eh,  Alexina?" 

Emily  almost  snatched  it  away  and  paused 
at  the  foot  of  the  stairs. 

"  Good-by,"  she  said. 

He  was  finding  his  overcoat  and  feeling 
for  his  gloves.  Then  he  took  a  little  whisk- 
broom  from  the  rack  drawer  and  brushed 
his  hat  with  nicety.  He  was  smiling  with 
high  humour.  The  man's  content  was  al- 
most fatuous. 

"I'm  glad  to  have  you  here,  Alexina,"  he 
said;  "very  glad.  I  will  feel  that  Emily 


844  THE    HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

is  having  the  companionship  she  ought  to 
have  in  my  absence." 

The  click  of  the  door  as  he  closed  it 
seemed  to  breathe  a  brisk  and  satisfied  com- 
placency. Emily  had  fled  up-stairs.  Alex- 
ina  followed  her  slowly. 

How  strange  it  seemed  to  hear  her  mov- 
ing about  in  what  had  been  Aunt  Harriet's 
room. 

"  Come  in,"  she  called. 

Alexina  went  in. 

"He  might  at  least  have  refurnished  it, 
mightn't  he  ?"  said  Emily,  with  a  laugh.  It 
was  not  a  pleasant  laugh. 

"What  would  you  like  for  dinner?"  she 
asked  Alexina,  her  hand  on  the  bell. 

"I  don't  care,"  said  Alexina;  "anything." 

"  So  it  doesn't  cost  too  much,"  said  Emily, 
laughing  the  laugh  that  was  not  pleasant. 

Later,  the  conferences  with  the  servants 


PART   THREE  345 

over,  she  sat  down  to  make  certain  entries 
in  the  ledger,  open  on  the  desk.  Alexina 
picked  up  a  magazine. 

"He  asked  me  one  day,"  said  Emily, 
turning,  "what  had  become  of  an  end  of 
roast  that  ought  to  have  come  back  made 
over,  and  said  there  must  be  waste  in  the 
kitchen." 

"Don't,"  said  Alexina.  "I  wouldn't, 
Emily." 

"  Why  not  ?     You  knew  it  all  before." 

Alexina  flushed.  "  Yes,"  she  said  slowly, 
"  I  did.  I  knew  it  —  Before.  How  are 
your  mother  and  the  little  girls,  Emily  ?  " 

"  Mother  —  oh,  all  right.  He  told  me  to 
ask  Nan  and  Nell  over  every  Friday  from 
school  to  supper,  and  mother  and  father  and 
Oliver  over  to  Sunday  night  tea.  '  It  ought, 
in  the  end,'  he  told  me,  'to  make  an  appre- 
ciable saving  in  your  mother's  providing, 


346  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

these  continued  absences  from  stated 
meals." 

;<You  mustn't,  Emily.  Tell  me  about 
the  winter.  Have  you  been  gay  ?  " 

"Gay?"  Emily  wheeled  from  the  desk. 
She  gazed  at  Alexina  almost  wildly.  Then 
she  laughed  again.  "Gay!  oh,  my  great 
Heaven  —  gay!  Then  you  don't  know  ?  I 
am  going  to  bear  him  a  child  —  and,  oh, 
help  me  somehow;  Alexina,  I  loathe  him." 

A  child,  Uncle  Austen  and  Emily  a  child ! 
A  warmth  swept  out  of  Alexina's  very  soul 
and  enveloped  her.  She  knew,  and  she  did 
not  know.  Other  women  and  girls  had 
taken  it  for  granted  always  that  she  knew, 
and  talked  on  before  her.  It  meant  to  her 
something  vague,  unapproachable,  veiled, 
and  a  great,  overwhelming  consciousness 
stifled  and  choked  her. 

"  I  went  out  on  the  platform  of  the  train 


PART  THREE  847 

while  we  were  away,"  Emily  was  saying, 
Emily  who  never,  even  in  childhood,  had 
curbed  a  mood,  a  dislike,  a  humour,  "and 
tried  to  throw  myself  off,  but  I  was  afraid." 

Alexina  shrank.  "  I  mustn't  listen  — 
you  mustn't  tell  me  —  it's  between  you  and 
him,  Emily." 

Emily  had  gotten  up  and  was  walking 
about. 

"  He  offered  Oliver  a  place  in  the  bank,  to 
please  me,  I  thought.  Oliver's  nineteen 
now.  The  place  had  been  paying  eighteen 
dollars  a  week,  and  Oliver  had  only  been 
making  twelve.  So  he  offered  it  to  him  at 
fifteen.  'To  the  benefiting  of  both  sides,' 
he  came  home  and  told  me." 

Emily  stood  still,  her  eyes  tearless  and 
hard.  "Put  on  your  wraps,  Alexina,  and 
we'll  go  drive.  It's  like  a  duty,  a  task,  the 
exercising  of  the  horses.  It  hangs  over  me 


548  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

like  a  nightmare  that  I've  got  it  to  do,  until 
I've  gone  out  and  gotten  it  over." 

'Yes,"  said  Alexina,  on  familiar  ground, 
"I  know.  I've  hated  those  horses  too,  be- 
fore you.  But  you  ought  to  be  like  Aunt 
Harriet,  Emily;  don't  be  like  me  —  tell  him 


so." 


Emily,  unlocking  the  wardrobe  door,  sud- 
denly flung  up  her  arms  against  it  and  hid 
her  face  in  them.  "  I've  tried,  I  have  tried, 
and  I  can't- — I  can't;  I'm  afraid  of  him, 
Alexina." 

But  the  child  coming  -  -  their  child  ? 
Perhaps  the  child  would  make  it  right. 
When  it  came,  Emily  would  love  her  child  ? 
Perhaps  she  did ;  she  never  talked  about  it 
afterwards,  and  Alexina  never  saw  her  with 
it ;  it  died  in  the  summer,  soon  after  its  com- 
ing. 

When  she  did  see  the  two  again,  her  uncle 


PART   THREE  349 

and  Emily,  on  her  own  return  to  Louisville 
in  the  late  fall,  the  embarrassing  playfulness 
had  left  Uncle  Austen.  Perhaps  the  steely 
coldness  of  his  manner  was  worse.  Had 
Emily  dared  —  even  in  her  mourning  there 
was  something  about  her  that  was  reckless. 
But  she  did  not  dare.  She  was  twenty-two 
and  he  was  fifty-two,  and  she  was  to  live 
afraid  of  him,  to  see  him  an  old  man,  for  he 
is  living  now. 


CHAPTER   TWELVE 

Harriet  laughed  at  Alexina's  wonder  over 
her.  "It  took  me  a  time  to  realize  that 
hospitality  means  the  incidental  oftener  than 
the  invited,"  she  confessed.  "My  guests, 
you  know,  Alexina,  were  formally  asked,  and 
the  other  would  have  fretted  me.  That  was 
why,  I  suppose,  I  had  no  intimates." 

Harriet  never  knew,  it  would  seem,  these 
days,  whether  the  Judge,  the  Colonel,  Fa- 
ther Ryan,  the  man  from  the  office  chatting 
in  the  library  with  the  Major,  one  or  all, 
were  going  to  stay  for  supper  or  were  not; 
yet  she  had  come  to  the  place  where  she 
could  smile  in  serene  and  genuine  welcome, 


PART   THREE  351 

the  while  everybody  moved  up  and  the  col- 
oured housemaid  slipped  in  an  extra  chair 
and  plate. 

And  she  only  laid  a  hand  on  the  spoon 
with  which  little  Stevie  hammered  his  plate. 

"I'd  take  it  away  and  spank  him  myself, 
you  know,"  confided  Louise,  Stevie's  moth- 
er, to  Alexina;  "  I  do  spank  William." 

But  all  of  life  seemed  to  be  moving  for 
Harriet  with  serenity.  Every  trivial  hap- 
pening was  swallowed  up  in  the  joy  that 
death  had  spared  her  her  husband.  And 
the  Major,  whatever  the  agony,  the  horror, 
preceding  the  acceptation  of  a  maimed  life, 
had  not  lost  the  vital  grace  of  humour.  Life 
flowed  in  and  out  of  the  Rathbone  home 
with  him  for  centre  as  it  had  used  to  do  in 
and  out  of  his  office.  The  room  where  he 
sat  amid  his  papers  and  books  was  a  rally- 
ing place  because  the  strong  will  and  per- 


352  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

sonality  of  the  man  in  the  wheeled  chair 
made  it  so. 

"He's  been  meaning  for  years  to  do  a 
series  of  guerrilla  articles  a  magazine  has 
wanted  of  him,  and  now  he's  at  them,"  said 
Harriet,  "  and  he  has  given  in  this  far,  in  his 
stiff-necked  pride,  that  he's  bought  an  inter- 
est in  the  paper  for  me,  and  it  keeps  him  in 
touch  and  absorbed." 

The  Major  had  been  watching  Alexina. 
At  the  end  of  several  days'  observations  he 
leaned  back  in  his  chair  and  addressed 
her.  His  eyes  were  humorous.  'There's 
an  encouraging  promise  about  you,  Alex- 
ina," he  informed  her.  Then  he  caressed 
his  lean  chin  with  his  lean,  smooth  hand. 
"A  promise  that  gives  me  hope.  You've 
laughed  at  my  jokes  since  you've  been 
here,  and  not  from  mere  politeness  either. 
Now,  Harriet  smiles  out  of  the  goodness 


PART   THREE  353 

of  her  heart  because  she  thinks  she  ought 
to." 

But  he  caught  at  Harriet's  hand  even 
while  they  all  three  laughed,  for  it  was  pat- 
ent to  everybody  that  Harriet  had  no  idea 
what  his  jokes  were  about,  which  was  the 
amusing  thing  of  all,  seeing  that  it  was  the 
Major's  humour  that  she  confessed  had 
attracted  her. 

And  yet  the  eyes  of  the  man  often  deep- 
ened and  glowed  as  he  watched  her  move 
about  the  house,  for  she  made  even  the 
trivial  duties  seem  beautiful  because  of  her 
unconscious  earnestness  and  her  joy  in 
their  doing. 


CHAPTER  THIRTEEN 

On  the  return  to  Aden,  that  last  hour  on  the 
train,  Alexina  was  trembling.  She  was 
glad,  glad  to  be  back,  yet  of  the  actual  mo- 
ment of  arrival  she  was  afraid. 

It  was  Peter,  and  alone,  who  met  her  at 
the  station  with  the  wagonette.  The  high 
ecstasy  of  her  shrinking  fell  like  collapsing 
walls  beneath  her.  Life  was  grey,  level,  flat. 

"  Mrs.  Garnier's  po'ly  this  mornin',"  Pete 
told  her  as  they  drove  homeward.  "Mis' 
Cha'lotte  wouldn't  leave  her  to  come,  and 
Mr.  Willy,  he's  been  gone  for  a  week  now, 
down  to  the  grasswater  with  a  pahty  of 
gen'l'men,  as  guide." 


PART   THREE  355 

She  felt  strangely  tired  and  quiet.  It  was 
going  to  be  hard  to  seem  as  glad  to  be  back 
as  she  ought.  Yet  the  world,  as  they  drove 
out  to  Nancy,  was  rioting  in  bud,  and  new 
leaf  and  bloom.  Magnolias  were  uplifting 
giant  ivory  cups  of  heavy  sweetness;  every 
tree-trunk,  rail  and  stump  bore  a  clamber- 
ing weight  of  yellow  jasmine  bloom;  the  tai- 
tai  drooped  pendulous  fringes  of  faintest 
fragrance,  and  wild  convolvulus  ran  riot 
over  the  palmetto.  There  were  bird-song 
and  sunshine  and  ecstasy  everywhere. 

And  she  could  not  feel  glad,  she  could  not 
feel  glad. 

Promptly  Molly  dragged  the  girl  off  to 
their  room.  She  looked  slighter  and  more 
wistful-eyed  and  bored  to  death.  ;'You 
promised  me  that  we  would  go  early  in 
March,  if  I  stayed  out  here  —  you  promised, 
Malise.  And  I've  stayed.  You  promised 


356  THE   HOUSE    OF   FULFILMENT 

we'd  go  to  The  Bay,  where  there  are  people 
and  hotels  and  it's  gay.  And  it's  March 
now.  You  look  so  tall  and  cold,  Malise! 
what's  the  matter?" 

Alexina,  restless  and  absent,  wandered  out 
on  the  porch  to  the  Captain.  She  chatted  to 
him  about  Louisville,  but  there  were  sharp- 
ening angles  about  his  face  that  made  her 
heart  ache.  She  went  up  to  Mrs.  Leroy's 
room. 

"I  don't  know  what  we  are  going  to  do, 
Alexina,"  Charlotte  told  her.  "Willy  said 
I  was  not  to  think  or  worry  about  it,  I  was 
to  put  it  all  aside  until  he  got  back.  But  it 
hurts.  He  went  off  looking  so  gaunt.  I 
don't  believe  he  slept  a  night  through  after 
the  freeze;  all  hours  I  could  hear  him  up, 
walking  around,  but  he  don't  like  it  if  I  no- 
tice, you  know." 

Alexina  dropped  down  and  put  her  head 


PART   THREE  957 

in  Charlotte's  lap  and  cried,  and  Charlotte 
patted  the  girl's  wealth  of  shining  hair  and 
cried  too. 

But  since  he  could  go  without  a  sign  to 
her,  Alexina  could  go  too.  That  day  she 
wrote  for  rooms  at  The  Bay  Hotel.  The  an- 
swer came  that  she  could  have  what  she 
wanted  by  the  eighth.  She  told  Mrs.  Leroy 
she  and  Molly  would  go  on  that  date. 

She  could  leave  without  a  sign  too,  she 
had  said,  but  in  her  heart  there  was  joy  that 
Fate  had  given  her  to  the  eighth.  She  would 
not  have  moved  a  finger  to  stay,  but  since  he 
was  to  return  on  the  sixth,  why  - 

But  the  very  day  the  letter  from  The  Bay 
reached  her,  a  Seminole  came  up  from  the 
glades  with  game  from  King  and  a  note. 
The  party  was  considering  making  a  longer 
stay,  he  wrote  to  his  mother,  so  she  need  not 
worry  in  case  he  did  not  return. 


358  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

"I  told  him  in  my  answer,"  said  Char- 
lotte, "that  you  all  were  going.  Dear  me, 
I'll  miss  you  so." 

Then  he  would  know,  he  would  know,  and 
if  he  did  not  come  it  would  be  because  it  was 
his  desire  not  to. 

Molly  confessed  to  a  few  bills  in  town. 
Malise  had  left  money,  yet  Molly  had  man- 
aged to  make  accounts  at  a  fruiterer's,  the 
cafe,  as  it  called  itself,  the  drug  store,  the 
stationer's,  and  the  two  dry-goods  establish- 
ments. 

"I'm  glad  you're  not  stingy  like  the 
Blairs,"  Molly  told  her;  "you  know,  Malise, 
they're  really  mean.  Your  grandfather  Blair 
carried  you  out  to  their  gate  once  to  see  a 
hand-organ  man  and  his  monkey.  You  were 
too  pleased  for  anything,  and  when  the  man 
finally  moved  away  your  grandfather  told 
you,  *  Say  good-by  to  the  monkey,  Alexina.' ' 


PART   THREE  359 

Truth  to  tell,  Molly  and  Charlotte  seemed 
to  have  had  a  fine  time  in  the  absence  of 
their  two  youthful  monitors.  Charlotte 
was  as  wax  in  the  naughty  Molly's  hands. 
Even  now,  with  Alexina  on  the  scene,  Molly 
proceeded  to  put  Mrs.  Leroy  up  to  a  thing 
that  never  would  have  entered  that  inno- 
cent soul's  head. 

Charlotte  went  mysteriously  to  town  one 
morning,  Peter  in  his  best  clothes  driving 
her,  and  came  back  beaming. 

"  I've  asked  some  of  the  Aden  young  peo- 
ple out  for  the  evening  before  you  go,"  she 
told  Alexina.  "  The  halls  and  the  parlours 
are  so  big,  you  can  dance." 

Charlotte  beamed  and  Molly  looked 
innocent.  Alexina  gazed  at  Mrs.  Leroy 
dismayed.  What  would  the  Captain, 
what  would  King  William  think?  It 
would  never  occur  to  Mrs.  Leroy  until 


360  THE    HOUSE    OF    FULFILMENT 

afterward  that  she  could  not  afford  such 
a  thing. 

"  I  think  we  ought  to  do  it  together,"  said 
Alexina  privately  to  her.  "  Molly  and  I  owe 
Aden  some  return." 

Charlotte  was  made  to  see  it.  Had  Willy 
come  along,  she  would  have  seen  it  as  speed- 
ily after  his  will,  be  that  what  it  might. 

Whatever  the  Captain  thought,  he  sat  un- 
moved in  the  midst  of  the  deluge  of  water 
and  mopping  that  suddenly  swept  about  him 
on  the  porch.  There  must  have  been 
Dutch  in  Charlotte  somewhere,  for  hospi- 
tality with  her  meant  excess  of  cleaning^ 

It  was  a  miserable  week  altogether  to 
Alexina.  The  days  dragged  through  to 
their  nights,  and  the  nights  to  morning. 
She  had  never  known  so  hateful  a  time.  She 
hated  the  grove,  where  thousands  of  oranges, 
gathered  into  piles,  lay  rotting,  and  where 


PART  THREE  361 

the  smiling  trees,  wherever  their  buds  had 
escaped  injury,  were  putting  out  scattered 
blooms ;  she  hated  the  lake,  and  the  Cherokee 
roses  in  bloom,  she  hated  the  crepe  myrtles 
and  the  camelias  in  the  yard.  To  walk 
meant  wading  through  sand ;  there  was  noth- 
ing in  town  to  make  the  drive  worth  while. 
The  shame,  the  sting  was  in  everything  that 
was  beautiful.  That  she  should  care ! 

Mr.  Jonas  and  Mr.  Henderson  drove  out 
one  evening,  Mr.  Jonas  to  talk  over  matters 
with  the  Captain.  Alexina  wandered  off  by 
herself. 

Presently  she  heard  Mrs.  Leroy  calling 
softly.  "It's  your  mother,"  she  told  Alex- 
ina in  a  whisper,  as  the  girl  came  back  to  the 
house.  "I  don't  believe  Mr.  Henderson  is 
good  for  her." 

Molly  was  talking  to  Mr.  Jonas  rapidly, 
eagerly,  like  one  defending  self,  as  Alexina 


362  THE    HOUSE    OF    FULFILMENT 

reached  them.  Mr.  Henderson  was  re- 
garding her  out  of  sombre  eyes. 

"It's  not  that  I  think  I'm  sick,"  Molly 
was  saying,  "  like  he  says  I  am.  I'm  better, 
really,  much  better,  only  while  he  was  talk- 
ing about,  about  things  —  it's  a  dreadful  re- 
ligion his;  I'd  rather  be  without  any,  like 
Jean,  than  have  one  like  his  -  - 1  remem- 
bered how  Father  Bonot  used  to  pull  the  or- 
anges for  me  I  couldn't  reach.  Here's  Ma- 
lise  come  back.  Malise,  let's  not  go  to  The 
Bay  after  all;  I'm  tired;  let's  go  to  Cannes 
Brulee.  He's  there,  Father  Bonot  is,  they 
told  me  in  Washington.  He's  an  old,  old 
man.  Let's  go  back  home  there." 

"Why,  yes,"  said  the  girl,  "if  you  want, 
we'll  go." 

"You  were  a  little  baby  at  Cannes  Brulee 
—  yes,"  animatedly,  "that's  what  we'll  do. 
We'll  go  home  to  Father  Bonot,  Malise." 


PART   THREE  363 

At  the  touch  of  Mr.  Jonas  the  minister 
started.  His  face  was  grey.  Then  he  got 
up  and  followed  the  other.  On  the  way  in 
to  Aden  in  the  buckboard  he  hardly  spoke 
until  the  hotel  was  reached. 

Mr.  Jonas  stopped  the  mare  before  the 
plank  sidewalk.  The  minister  came  to  him- 
self as  out  of  chaos. 

"My  God,"  he  said. 

Mr.  Jonas  turned  the  wheel.  "Only 
yours  ?"  he  rejoined  briskly. 

The  minister,  on  the  sidewalk  now,  looked 
up  at  him  dazedly.  "I  don't  know  what 
you  mean,"  he  said. 

"Not  yet,"  returned  Mr.  Jonas,  with 
cheerful  reassurance;  "you  will,  you  will, 
though." 

So  again  Alexina  made  plans.  They 
would  go  on  the  eighth  as  before,  she  and 


304  THE    HOUSE    OF   FULFILMENT 

Celeste  and  Molly,  but  they  would  go  to 
Cannes  Brulee. 

Supper  was  over  and  the  Captain  sat 
smoking  in  his  cane  chair  on  the  gallery.  If 
King  was  coming,  it  would  be  to-night;  the 
train  from  the  South  came  in  at  seven,  and 
he  knew  that  they  were  going. 

Alexina,  sitting  on  the  steps  below  him, 
was  glad  it  was  the  Captain  out  here  with 
her,  rather  than  the  others.  It  was  like 
the  quiet  and  cover  of  twilight,  the  silence 
of  the  Captain.  Moving  a  little,  she  put 
a  hand  upon  the  arm  of  his  chair.  His 
closed  upon  it  and  his  eyes  rested  on  her 
young,  beautiful  profile,  though  she  did  not 
know  it. 

The  moon  came  up.  The  clock  in  the 
hall  struck  eight.  Molly  was  lying  on  the 
sofa  inside,  Mrs.  Leroy  moving  about  as 
was  her  wont,  straightening  after  the  ser- 


PART   THREE  363 

vants  had  gone,  and  innocently  unsystema- 
tizing  what  little  system  they  employed. 

Outside  sat  the  man  and  the  girl.  There 
were  night  calls  from  birds  and  insects,  but 
beyond  these  sounds  the  girl's  heart  listen- 
ing, heard  — 

Between  where  the  road  emerged  from 
the  hummock  and  the  gate  to  Nancy  was  a 
stretch  of  old  corduroy  road  over  a  marshy 
strip.  Elsewhere  a  horses's  hoofs  sank  into 
sand.  Willy  Leroy  would  ride  out,  if  he 
came,  probably  on  Mr.  Jonas's  mare. 

The  girl  sat,  all  else  abeyant,  listening. 
She  heard  the  first  hoof-beat,  the  first  clat- 
tering thud  on  wood.  Her  hand  slipped 
from  the  Captain's;  she  sat  still. 

She  sat  stiller  even  as  Willy  rode  in  and 
called  halloo  to  the  house,  while  his  mother 
and  Molly,  and  even  Celeste,  came  out. 
She  hardly  moved  as  he  touched  her  hand 


366  THE    HOUSE    OF   FULFILMENT 

and  went  past  her  with  the  others  into  the 
house,  and  left  her  there. 

She  did  not  know  how  long  it  was  they 
came  and  went,  Pete  with  the  horse  to  the 
stable,  Mrs.  Leroy  getting  the  boy  his  supper. 
The  talk  of  the  father  and  mother  and  son 
rose  and  fell  within. 

She  heard  them  closing  shutters,  hunting 
lamps,  and  moving  up  the  steps.  But  he 
came  out  and  sat  on  the  step  near  her,  and 
yet  far  away. 

They  did  not  look  toward  each  other. 
And  yet  he  knew  how  she  looked,  fair,  still, 
perhaps  a  little  cold;  and  she  knew  how  he 
looked,  tanned  and  bronzed,  yet  good  to  see 
in  his  hunting  clothes. 

Shy  as  two  young,  wild  things  they  sat, 
and  wordless. 

Presently  he  spoke,  looking  away  from 
her. 


PART   THREE  367 

"Mother  wrote  me  you  were  going.  I 
came  up  to  say  good-by.  They're  to  wait 
forme  in  camp." 

After  that  they  both  were  silent,  how  long 
neither  knew.  Then  the  girl  stood  up. 

"  It  must  be  late,"  she  said. 

"Oh,"  he  said,  "no—" 

"Yes,"  she  said;  "I  think  you'll  find  it  is. 
Good-night." 


CHAPTER   FOURTEEN 

In  her  packing  Alexina  had  left  out  a  muslin 
dress  for  Mrs.  Leroy's  evening.  Going  up 
from  the  hurried  supper  to  dress,  she 
glanced  at  it,  then  drew  forth  a  box  from  a 
trunk  and  pulled  the  contents  therefrom. 
The  dress  that  came  forth  shimmered  and 
gleamed  and  floated;  it  was  a  thing  that 
must  have  enfolded  any  woman  to  beautiful 
lines,  and  have  made  any  throat,  any  head, 
lift.  It  was  a  purchase  she  had  been  in  a 
way  avshamed  of,  tempted  to  it  in  a  moment 
of  weakness,  urged  on  by  Molly. 

Now  she  laid  it  forth  and  dressed  with 
care,  grave  as  some  young  priestess.     Molly 


PART   THREE  869 

watched  her  curiously.  Even  at  the  hotel 
there  had  been  occasions  for  only  simple 
clothes. 

But  the  girl  even  brought  forth  some  lea- 
ther cases.  Generally  it  was  her  little  pose 
that  she  did  not  care  for  jewels,  but  in  her 
heart  she  loved  them,  as  every  woman  does, 
primitive  or  civilized,  young  or  three-score- 
and-ten.  Now  she  put  on  what  she  had. 
Of  late  the  fairness  of  Malise  had  deepened 
into  abiding  beauty,  yet  to-night  it  was  the 
garb  she  was  emphasizing  it  would  seem, 
and  what  it  stood  for,  not  the  personality. 

:<  You're  curious,"  said  Molly.  "I  would 
have  thought  it  was  a  time  for  the  sim- 
plest." 

"  Should  you  ?  "  said  Alexina. 

The  evening  turned  into  a  really  sponta- 
neous little  affair.  It  was  the  sort  of  thing 
the  young  people  of  Aden  —  dwellers  in  the 


370  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

various  frame  houses  about  the  town,  all  so- 
journers  from  a  common  cause,  some- 
body's health  —  it  was  the  sort  of  thing 
these  young  people  got  up  about  every  other 
night  in  the  year.  Two  mandolins,  a  violin, 
and  a  harp  made  music.  A  college  boy  with 
a  cough,  and  a  Mexican  bar-keeper  played 
the  mandolins,  the  local  boot  and  shoe  deal- 
er the  violin,  an  Italian  the  harp,  and  the 
whole  called  itself  a  string  band. 

Charlotte  Leroy,  in  a  rejuvenated  dress  of 
former  splendour,  was  a  beaming  soul  of  de- 
light. That  Alexina,  Willy  and  Celeste  had 
really  seen  to  everything  Charlotte  had  no 
idea,  for  neither  had  she  sat  down  that  day. 

But  she  beamed  now  while  Molly's  low 
laughter  rose  softly. 

Alexina  rearranged  lights  and  adjusted 
decorations.  She  went  out  to  the  kitchen 
and  took  a  reassuring  survey.  Later,  she 


PART  THREE  371 

told  the  Aden  youths  who  asked,  she  didn't 
believe  she  meant  to  dance.  They  did  not 
press  her;  perhaps  it  was  the  gown,  perhaps 
it  was  her  manner  preventing.  She  laughed, 
as  if  it  mattered!  She  talked  with  Mr. 
Jonas,  but  all  the  time  she  knew  that  Wil- 
liam Leroy,  in  his  white  flannel  clothes,  was 
outside,  smoking,  on  the  gallery.  After  a 
while  she  went  out.  He  was  leaning  against 
a  pillar,  and  turned  at  her  step.  The  night 
was  flooded  as  by  an  ecstasy  of  moonlight. 
His  eyes  swept  her  bare  shoulders  and  arms, 
the  shimmering  dress,  the  jewels,  then  turn- 
ing, he  looked  away. 

"  Come  and  dance,"  said  Alexina. 

"I  don't  know  how." 

"It's  your  own  fault,"  said  the  girl  as 
promptly;  "you  climbed  up  on  back  sheds 
at  dancing  school  so  you  wouldn't  have  to 
learn," 


372  THE    HOUSE    OF    FULFILMENT 

"It  gave  me  my  own  satisfaction  at  the 
time,"  said  he. 

"There's  so  much  that's  your  own  fault," 
she  returned,  "  and  which  you  cover  up  by 
pretending  that  you  don't  like  or  want. 
You're  as  human  as  any  one  else.  You 
make  yourself  believe  you  don't  want  things 
because  you're  stubborn  and  proud,  but  you 
flo,  you  do." 

"Under  proper  conditions,"  he  admitted 
largely,  "I  might,  yes." 

"  Under  any  conditions,  in  your  heart  you 
want  them,  we  all  want  them;  you're  not 
different." 

"Well,  and  what  then?" 

'You  are  not  honest,  that  is  what  then." 

"  Well,"  he  returned,  "  and  what  then  ?  " 

She  was  almost  crying.  'You  exonerate 
yourself,  you  condone  yourself,  you  say  you 
would,  you  could,  you  will  —  some  day,  if 


PART   THREE  373 

-  if  thus  and  so.  You  think  some  better 
condition  is  going  to  bring  the  confidence  to 
be  what  nature  meant  you  to  be ;  yes,  you  do 
think  it,  you  do,  you  do.  But  it  has  to  grow 
out  of  yourself.  I  can  tell  you  that,  and 
when  the  time  you  think  for  comes,  to  be 
what  you'd  like  to  be,  you'll  have  lost  the 
power.  I  want  to  say  it,  I  mean  to  say  it,  I 
want  to  hurt  you,  I  hope  my  saying  it  can 
hurt  you,  so  I  can  go  away  glad,  glad  I've 
hurt  you.  There,  I've  said  it;  don't  stop 
me,  don't;  I  came  to  say  it  and  I'm  going 
back  now." 

He  was  breathing  hard.  "  Oh,  no,"  he  said, 
"  you're  not."  He  glanced  around.  Then  he 
stepped  down  from  the  gallery  and  turned. 
"  Come,  let  yourself  go,  I'll  steady  you." 

She  hesitated,  brushing  some  wet  from  her 
cheek  with  her  hand.  She  did  not  know  un- 
til then  there  had  been  tears. 


374  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

"  Come,"  he  reiterated.  It  was  the  tone 
women,  even  Molly,  obeyed. 

She  slipped  down  and  he  caught  her  and 
set  her  on  her  feet.  "Pick  up  your  dress," 
he  said,  "  the  grass  is  wet." 

Everywhere,  it  seemed,  there  were  couples 
strolling.  Around  to  the  right,  by  the  side 
door,  with  its  little,  vine-covered  pent-house, 
was  a  bench  beneath  a  tree;  Aunt  Mandy 
and  Mrs.  Leroy  aired  their  crocks  and  pans 
thereon.  He  led  the  way  to  it,  spread  out 
his  handkerchief,  and  Alexina,  gathering  up 
her  gleaming  dress,  sat  down.  The  comical 
side  of  it  must  have  occurred  to  him,  the  girl 
gathering  up  a  dress  fit  for  a  princess,  to  sit 
there.  He  laughed,  not  an  altogether  hu- 
morous laugh. 

"  Illustrative  of  the  true  state  of  things,  as 
it  were,"  he  said.  "I  proffer  my  lady  a 
milk-bench." 


PART   THREE  375 

A  sob  rose  in  her  throat.  "I  hate  you," 
she  said  hotly. 

"  That  you  bestow  feeling  of  any  sort,  to 
such  degree,  is  flattering,"  said  he  nastily. 

14  You're  very  rude." 

"  It  puts  us  on  a  sort  of  equality,  and  es- 
tablishes me  in  my  own  self-respect,  so  to 
speak,  to  have  face  to  be  rude  to  une  grande 
dame  — " 

"You're  not  honest,  and  you  know  it,  and 
it's  hurting  you  while  you're  doing  it." 

"Just  so,"  said  William,  after  the  fashion 
of  his  father.  "  Where  are  you  going  ?  " 

"To  the  house." 

"Comeback." 

"I  won't.     I've  said  what  I  had  to  say." 

He  came  after  her.  "  And  now  you  shall 
listen."  They  stood  and  looked  at  each 
other.  Her  eyes  measured  him  with  some 
scorn,  his  met  the  look  squarely.  "I  care 


376  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

for  you  as  the  only  thing  worth  while  in 
life,"  he  said. 

"I've  not  so  much  pride  left  you  need 
think  you  have  to  say  that  to  save  it,"  she 
burst  forth. 

"You  are  the  one  not  true  now.  You 
know  it,  you  have  known  it  right  along.  I 
hadn't  even  the  arts  of  your  world  to  know 
how  to  conceal  it." 

"My  world!"  said  Alexina. 

"Very  well;  let's  both  be  honest.  I've 
fought  it  because  I've  had  enough  decency 
to  see  the  impossibility  —  oh,  my  God!- 
what's  the  use  being  fool  enough  to  talk 
about  it.  I  haven't  one  cent  on  earth  that's 
my  own;  I'm  worse  than  a  beggar,  if  we  are 
going  to  be  quite  honest  about  matters,  since 
I  am  a  debtor." 

"Oh,"  said  Alexina;  "oh,  don't." 

"  I  fought  it  out,  or  thought  I  had,  down 


PART   THREE  377 

there  in  the  glades,  and  then  got  up  and 
came  back  because  I  couldn't  let  you  go  - 
without  - 

"I'm  glad,"  said  Alexina,  "I'm  glad." 

"You  don't  know  what  you're  saying." 

"I  do  know,"  said  the  girl.  "I'm  glad, 
I'm  glad—" 

"Alexina!" 

"I'm  glad." 

Her  young  face  was  white  and  solemn  in 
the  moonlight,  but  her  eyes  came  up  to  his 
with  a  splendid  courage.  "  I'm  glad,"  she 
repeated. 

It  might  have  been  a  moment,  an  hour,  a 
day,  an  aeon,  the  two  looked  at  each  other. 
Then  their  hands  went  out  to  each  other,  for 
very  need  of  human  touch  in  the  great  awe 
of  it. 

When  he  spoke  both  were  trembling. 

"  Will  you  wait  ?  "  he  asked  her.     "  It  may 


378  THE   HOUSE   OF   FULFILMENT 

be  long."  But  the  note  in  his  voice  was  new. 
The  fight  even  then  was  begun. 

"Yes,"  she  told  him,  grave  eyes  meeting 
grave  eyes,  for  young  love  is  solemn.  Then 
he  drew  her  to  him  and  sight  and  sound 
went  out,  and  the  solid  round  earth  was 
spurned.  And  yet  they  were  but  two  of  the 
long,  unending  line,  mounting  thus  to  God 
and  His  heaven,  for  it  is  for  this  we  are  come 
into  the  world. 

Suddenly  Alexina  slipped  her  hands  from 
his  and  fled. 

Molly  was  on  the  porch  with  Mr.  Jonas. 
A  toy  harness  from  the  cotillion  favors  jan- 
gled on  her  dress.  She  had  sunk  laughing 
on  a  bench  to  get  breath. 

"  Yes,"  she  told  Mr.  Jonas,  "  we  go  in  the 
morning,  to  Cannes  Brulee." 

Alexina  was  coming  up  on  the  porch 
and  to  Molly.  Straight  she  slipped  to  her 


PART  THREE  379 

knees  and  her  arms  went  around  her  mother. 

"Dear  me,  Malise,"  said  Molly. 

The  head  of  the  girl  hid  itself  in  the  curve 
of  the  mother's  neck  and  shoulder. 

"Dear  me,  Malise,"  said  Molly,  "you're 
such  a  child." 

THE    END 


THE  MCCLURE  PRESS,  NEW  YORK 


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